Last Wednesday night we looked at the qualifications and responsibilities of ELDERS in the local Church. ELDERS are not OLD PEOPLE. The Biblical definition of an ELDER is

“Someone mature and maturing in the faith of Jesus Christ. Someone who spends regular time in the Christian disciplines of prayer, Scriptural study, and productive assembly with the Saints”

Elders are NOT to “be lords over God’s heritage, but … examples to the flock” (1 Peter 5:3). Let’s continue our study:

1 Peter 5:5-7 Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble. 6 Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: 7 Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.

There are two poisons that the Holy Spirit through Peter the Chief Apostle now addresses: PRIDE and WORRY.

Salvation Requires Surrender To God.
Pride & Worry Are The Opposites Of Surrender.

1 Peter 5:7 Casting all your care upon {God};
for {God} careth for you

Word Study: The word translated “care” is the Greek μέριμνα mérimna, {pronounced mer’-im-nah}, which literally means “distractions caused by anxiety, worry”. When our Lord Jesus talked about the “Gospel Seed” and the things that can destroy that seed from blooming into a right relationship with God, He said:

Matthew 13:3-4, 7, 22 … Behold, a sower went forth to sow {the Gospel}… 4 And when he sowed, some seeds fell … 7 among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them … 22 He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the Word; and the CARE mérimna of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful.

CARE or WORRY can cause a person to hear the Gospel message, and then to walk away without receiving the seed. When a person hears the Gospel, Jesus warned us all to “count the cost” (Luke 14:28) before giving our lives to Him.

To follow Jesus is to “forsake all that you have” (Luke 14:33)

Luke 14:26-27 If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. 27 And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple.

The devil has crept into the Gospel message of many churches over the past 50p years of so, and has suggested that you can be saved without total surrender to Christ. This is a lie from hell.

You cannot be saved, and still be sick with sin. (Romans 6:1-2; 6:15)
You cannot be saved, and still abide in darkness. (1 John 1:7; John 12:46)
You cannot be saved, and carry hatred or racism in your heart. (1 John 4:20)
You cannot be saved, and ignore Christ’s commands. (1 John 2:4)
You cannot be saved, and not be born again. (John 3:3, 7; 1 Peter 1:23)
You cannot be saved, and not be a new creature in Christ. (2 Corinthians 5:17)

If you hear a preacher preaching salvation WITHOUT
REPENTANCE, then RUN, for this is devilish doctrine.

Pastor C.H. Spurgeon stated:

“Grace which does not make us hate sin is false grace. We must preach repentance from dead works, and faith which works by love, and the people must be told that Christ has not come to save men in their sin but from their sin. On this we will be clear as the sun at noon.”

Salvation requires surrender to God. Salvation will make you different than the world, and thus hated of the world, just as it hates Jesus (John 15:18, 25). The darkness will always hate the light. There are many who hear the Gospel preached who, being in anxiety as to how it will effect their marriages, their relationship with their friends, and perhaps even their jobs, reject Jesus. Nine times out of ten people reject the Gospel out of PRIDE and ANXIETY or WORRY. If you come to God with empty hands, repenting of your old way of life and casting yourself upon Him, then you have His promise:

Hebrews 7:25 … to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.

Let’s look at the word (God} “careth”.

1 Peter 5:7 Casting all your care upon {God};
for {God} careth for you

Word Study: Here is why I like to look at the original text of Scripture, and not just the King James. The word “” is the Greek mérimna, but the word “careth” (though the KJV links the former word with the latter) is an entirely different word, which is μέλω mélō, {pronounced mel’-o}. This word means “to care about, to be deeply interested in, to have concern for”. Whereas mérimna refers to “anxiety, worry”, mélō means that “God is concerned about the smallest areas of your life, and watches over or focuses on you”.

When we begin to obsessively worry about events that are occurring in our lives, this is actually a function of PRIDE. We want to be in charge of every little thing. Yet there is no blessing in this way of living. In His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus told us:

Matthew 6:26-34 (NKJV) Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? 28 “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; 29 and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

We are told to “cast all our anxieties on God”. Why? “Because God is FOCUSED on our lives”. We are His children, if we have been born again by faith in Christ. God paid the greatest price for us that He could have paid. The Bible says that

1 Corinthians 15:3 … Christ died for our sins

1 Peter 2:22-25 {Jesus} committed no sin, neither was deceit found in His mouth. 23 When He was reviled, he did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but continued entrusting Himself to {God} who judges justly. 24 {Jesus} Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. 25 For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

God the Father and God the Spirit gave the most precious thing He could for our salvation. God gave His Son to the bloody Cross of Calvary. God paid the MOST for you at salvation when He sent His Only Begotten Son to die for your sins:

John 3:16-18 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18 He that believeth on Him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because He hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

God gave more for your salvation than BILLIONS of dollars. He gave His Son. It is ARROGANT to believe that god gave so much for my salvation, that God will not CARE FOR HIS INVESTMENT. You are God’s investment. You are God’s Workmanship (Ephesians 2:10).

If you are saved, you should not let worry or anxiety control you. You are to be controlled by the Love of Christ and by the Holy Spirit.

If it is true that “While we were yet helpless, Jesus died for the ungodly” (Romans 5:6), and that “Jesus gave Himself to rescue us from this present evil age” (Galatians 1:4), and that “all things work together for GOOD to those who love the Lord, for those who are called according to HIS PURPOSE”, THEN WE NEED NOT WORRY. Worry and anxiety are useless things that lower our faith, and introduce the horrible sin of unbelief into our lives. The Contemporary Christian Group Cain sing in their song “I’m So Blessed”:

Trouble knocking at my door today
I ain’t gonna let it in
And worry wanna steal my joy away
But I ain’t gonna let it win
‘Cause on my best day, I’m a child of God
On my worst day, I’m a child of God
Oh, every day is a good day
And You’re the reason why
I’m so blessed, I’m so blessed
Got this heartbeat in my chest
No, it doesn’t matter about the rest
If I got You Lord, I’m so blessed

As We Surrender To God, We Surrender To One Another

1 Peter 5:5 Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.

The Elders – those who have a regular relationship with Jesus Christ through exercise of the Christian Disciplines (Prayer, Bible Study, Christlike Service) – are to be leaders in the Church. But they are not to be dictators.

The heart of Christianity is SUBMISSION. You cannot be saved without submitting to Christ. You cannot be a Church without submitting to one another. Be “CLOTHED” with humility.

There is absolutely no organization EVER that functions without submission. In the Godhead though Father, Son, and Spirit are all co-equal and co-eternally God, all three Persons voluntarily submit to each other respecting the roles they perform.

The Father sends the Son into the world (1 John 4:10)
The Holy Spirit is sent by Jesus and
proceeds from the Father (John 14:26; 15:26)

My commentary notes:

“… our salvation is based on the Father’s power and love (John 3:16; 10:29), the Son’s death and resurrection (1 John 2:2; Ephesians 2:6), and the Spirit’s regeneration and seal (Ephesians 4:30; Titus 3:5).”

SUBMISSION is not a dirty word. A business cannot run without submission. The military cannot effectively defend us without submission. No Church long remains a Church without submission. And marriage along with the FAMILY cannot thrive without submission.

A few years ago the Southern Baptist Convention revised our Baptist Faith and Message in the area of marriage. The statement

“A wife is to submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her husband even as the church willingly submits to the headship of Christ.”

was added – and the uproar was heard around the world! “Women submit to their husbands! How dare the Southern Baptists! Don’t they know we are in the twenty-first century?” The liberal news channels on television had a field day, and feminist after feminist stood before the microphone to tell off us confused Baptists and our so called “Faith and Message”. Yet if you actually read the Baptist Faith and Message you would read:

“The husband and wife are of equal worth before God, since both are created in God’s image. The marriage relationship models the way God relates to His people. A husband is to love his wife as Christ loved the church. He has the God-given responsibility to provide for, to protect, and to lead his family. A wife is to submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her husband even as the church willingly submits to the headship of Christ.”

This is Biblical, not humanist. We are called to – in the marriage – “submit yourselves one to another in the fear of God” (Ephesians 5:21-23). Pastor and Author Randy Alcorn wrote:

“… the same Bible that says women are to submit to their husbands also says that a husband and wife are one (Matthew 19:6 and others). Fascinating parallel isn’t it? Does the Bible teach that women are inferior to men? Absolutely not. God made mankind (male and female) in His image and likeness (Genesis 1:26). But God does have different functions for male and female. Even in the natural realm, women get pregnant and men don’t. Men have sperm and women don’t. Within the God-ordained authority structure, men and women have functional differences even though they are one.”

We are told in tonight’s text:

1 Peter 5:5 yea, all of you be subject one to another

Our entire world fell into the destructiveness of sin because mankind did not practice SUBMISSION. Adam was told to submit himself to God, and NOT EAT that which God forbade. Adam was to care for the Garden of Eden and for Eve, but to obey God. Adam ignored the command of God. Eve was supposed to submit to her husband, but instead submitted to a talking snake (which was Satan, that old serpent (Revelation 20:2). Adam was supposed to be leading in the marriage, but instead took the forbidden fruit when Eve gave it to him. Where submission is lacking, nothing works right.

Salvation is not mine to hold on to, no more than it was mine to create. Salvation is a “gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9). We are told in:

Titus 3:5-7 Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; 6 Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior; 7 That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

We are saved by Grace – not by works. But once saved, we SUBMIT ourselves to God, and turn away from the darkness of this world. We are told:

Titus 2:11-13 (ESV) For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, 12 training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, 13 waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ,

Jesus was even MORE SPECIFIC when He said:

John 10:27-30 (ESV) My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one.”

I will be quite plain here. If you live your life on this earth without regard to what Jesus has taught then you are patently NOT saved. Jesus said, “Why do you call Me LORD, LORD, and not do what I say?” (Luke 6:46). The saved follow Jesus. Who stands apart from God and refuses to follow and submit? It is Satan, and his fallen followers. It was Satan who first said:

Isaiah 14:13-15 … I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the [angels] of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: (14) I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High [God]

Pride makes of fallen man and fallen angels a god. Worry robs the Christian of the joy of the Lord, as well as the “peace of God that passes all understanding”.

PRIDE says “I can do this without God”, whereas WORRY says “I must do this without God”. PRIDE says “I am as good and able as God” whereas WORRY says “I am not able – but no one else is able either”. PRIDE wraps its hand around a thing and hold it up under its own power. WORRY wraps its hand around a thing and refuses to surrender it to the Greater Power of God. Both emotions – and their accompanying actions – are not only sinful, but they are destructive. PRIDE causes the young person to experiment with drugs and sex, and generally leads to terrible destruction. WORRY robs the life – even the Christian life – of joy and peace. How do we avoid these twins of destruction, pride and worry? We submit ourselves unto the Lord. We trust Him and Him alone with our lives. We turn unto Jesus, and keep our eyes on Him. We do as the Scripture says:

Hebrews 12:2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of [our] faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Look at Jesus. Sinless, He was willing to come at the command of the Father into a sin soaked world. Perfect, Jesus sought out not those who thought themselves perfect, but the least among us, the sinners. Eternal Creator God, Jesus lowered Himself to become a part of His own creation. And perfectly innocent, Jesus willingly went to the Cross of Calvary to redeem us from Satan and sin.

Oh Beloved, let us put away pride and worry. Because Joseph’s brothers were proud and anxious, they sold their brother into slavery. Joseph overcame this horrible evil by casting all his anxiety upon God, knowing that God cared for him. When Joseph reunited with his brothers, he told them:

Genesis 50:19-21 (ESV) … “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? 20 As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. 21 So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones.” Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.

It was anxiety and pride that led King Saul to sacrifice on God’s altar rather than to wait for the Prophet Samuel. The Prophet told him:

1 Samuel 13:13-14 “You have done foolishly. You have not kept the command of the Lord your God, with which he commanded you. For then the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. 14 But now your kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought out a man after his own heart, and the Lord has commanded him to be prince over his people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you.”

Pride and worry caused Herod to kill the babies of Bethlehem, and to cut off John the Baptist’s head. Where ever pride and anxiety have a home, blessing is lost, and souls are not brought to the Kingdom of God. The Bible tells us:

1 Peter 5:5 … God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.

There are four young Jewish men that stand out throughout human history as those who followed the Lord. These men were the Prophet Daniel, and his friends Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. King Nebuchadnezzar demanded that these men bow down and worship a golden statue of himself that he had commissioned. They refused – and were saved from a fiery furnace. Yet later in his reign, King Nebuchadnezzar was made to lose his mind, so much so that he began to graze in the fields like a cow (Daniel 4:25-35). It is so true that “God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble”.

How Do I Conquer Pride And Worry In My Life?
In Short, Find Another Hobby!

There are three positive steps you can take to conquer pride and worry in your life. First,

1 Look for a place of service in the Church. God puts us together as a Church on purpose. We are told in 1 Corinthians 12:18, “God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as He chose”. Each part of the Church – much like the human body – must submit to the other parts if we are all to be blessed. When one part suffers pain, all parts suffer pain. When one part is blessed, all parts are blessed. God wants there to be “no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together”. (1 Corinthians 12:25-26). Find your niche, and then serve in it. Do not expect to be served or waited on, but work for the good of the Body and the glory of God.

2 Control your tongue. Ensure that you are glorifying God and blessing the Body with that little flap of muscle. The purpose every Christian has is to remember that not only I, but other Christians belong to God. The Scripture says:

1 Corinthians 6:20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.

Be particularly careful with your tongue when you are offended or under stress. Try not to set a fire that will burn the Church down!

3 Take a look in the mirror, and realize that YOU are not the Church. You are just a PART of the Church. You need the Church as much as the Church needs you. Sister Mother Teresa of Calcutta said, “The greatest disease in the West today is not tuberculosis or leprosy; it is being unwanted, unloved, and uncared for. We can cure physical diseases with medicine, but the only cure for loneliness, despair, and hopelessness is love. There are many in the world who are dying for a piece of bread but there are many more dying for a little love.” Jesus said:

John 13:34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.

Nowhere in the Scripture are we commanded to love ourselves. We are commanded to love others. John Stonestreet of Breakpoint notes:

“The biggest factors behind the drop in life expectancy among Americans over the last three years are drug overdoses and suicides. In 2017, more than 70,000 Americans died from drug overdoses, and approximately 45,000 people intentionally took their own lives. These deaths, along with alcohol-related deaths, have been dubbed “deaths of despair” … {there is a} 30-percent rise in suicide rates among 15-to-24 year-olds … As the sixth-century theologian Isidore of Seville put it, “to commit a crime is death to the soul; but to despair is to descend into hell.” If there’s a better word than “Hell” to describe the despair we are seeing in so many American communities, I’m not aware of it.”

This world needs Jesus. This Church is God’s tool to bring the glorious hope of Jesus to a lost and dying world. Let us strive to be one as we reach other to other in His name, for His glory. Through God’s Holy Spirit I pray. Amen and Amen.