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Hard in the air was multiplied to the earth, where my burdens felt the liberty at Calvary. On the second, by God's word, at last my sin I learned, and I trembled at the law I explored, till my guilt of soul and glory turned to Calvary. Mercy there was great, and grace was free. Hard in the air was multiplied to the earth, where my burdens felt the liberty at Calvary. All the love that drew salvation's plan, all the grace that brought it down to man, all the mighty value God did spin at Calvary. Mercy there was great, and grace was free. Hard in the air was multiplied to the earth, where my burdens felt the liberty at Calvary. On the last, now I've been to Jesus everything, now I gladly own Him as my King, now I'm absent to Him only, the sake of Calvary. Mercy there was great, and grace was free. Hard in the air was multiplied to the earth, where my burdens felt the liberty at Calvary. Well, I'll give this one to the last person that wants it after I'm done reading it, though. Alright, on our front cover we have our verse of the week, it says, lay not up for yourselves treasures upon the earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal. It's good scripture there, it's Matthew 6.19. Our service times are Sunday morning at 10.30 a.m. for our preaching service. I started a new series about the heart, and so last Sunday I preached about the hardened heart, and you'll just have to show up Sunday, and then we'll all know together what I'm preaching on Sunday, this Sunday morning on the heart, but it's something good about the heart. I try to put a negative and a positive, sometimes a double negative equals a positive, so we'll see what happens. Sunday evening we're going through the book of Exodus, and I'm going to finish up Exodus chapter 3 this Sunday, and then Thursday Bible study, we are in 1 Peter, and we're in the last portion of 1 Peter chapter 5 tonight, and so I'm going to finish the book, and we'll probably start 2 Peter next Thursday. And then we have our sowing times list, but we did have sowing tonight. We had 11 people out, and nobody ended up getting saved tonight, but I think we got to plant a few seeds out there, found a couple saved people, and one that we weren't sure about, but that's just kind of how it goes sometimes, and it's starting to get dark. It was basically dark right when we got there, so we might have to move that time up to a different time or something, so we'll figure it out this week, but brother Sean has a sowing for tomorrow, but I'm not sure if he's going to be able to make it. I know their family has been sick, so he's probably going to ask Alex, and Alex is going to go, I'll do it. He's already going to do it. That's how well I know him. So yeah, that'll probably be, well, I'll wait until brother Sean passes the torch, but yeah, there'll still be sowing in there, so anyway, also we have sowing on Saturday, and that's generally been about 1230, but it kind of varies, so last week I think they did it too, so are you still planning on doing 1230, or it's subject to change? Okay, alright, 1230, so and then of course you can look down, you can see the praise report, the salvations, baptisms, and attendance totals from last week, and our upcoming events. We changed the homeschool field trip. I hope everybody got the memo and nobody showed up in Eatonville, so it's going to be changed to what, this next coming Wednesday? Everything else is the same time? No? 1030, okay, that sounds better, that sounds like a Baptist time right there. 1030, so everybody will probably show up at 11, but anyway, 1030, no, you better not show up at 11, but 1030 is the Eatonville, it's actually Pioneer Farms, it's in Eatonville, it's about two hours away from here. Two hours and 15 minutes, so please be there by 1030, bring a sack lunch, and there will be two one and a half hour tours in between the lunch, or after the lunch on the bookends on the lunch, and so it's obviously completely free, so please, if you're, maybe you couldn't make, you weren't going to make it last week, but now you're planning on making it, just letting this Rachel know, I think they'll be feeling better, they're probably still healing up from whatever sickness they had, so we have a few big families, several big families out right now because of sickness, so we'll be praying for them tonight, of course, and the men's leadership class went well, but we're going to have, I just want to let the guys take note here that we're going to do December 6th, I didn't want to do it on Pearl Harbor day, or Brandon's birthday. What? Oh, 1015 for the homeschool field trip, sorry, if you're there at 1030, then you're really going to be in trouble, so 1015, okay, men's spiritual leadership class is December 6th, that'll be at 7pm, okay, and then November 20th, I'll be in Spokane preaching at the Spokane church, excited to see the guys and gals up there, and our new building, and then November 22nd is going to be, the midweek service is going to be changed from Thursday to Tuesday, so if you show up on Thursday, the rapture didn't happen, you just came to church on the wrong day after we changed it, so November 22nd, mark it down on your calendars, I know nobody's paying attention right now, but just focus for just a second, make sure that you have that down pat, we're doing it Tuesday, and then we're having a pie social afterwards, so we often just kind of hang out, that way the ladies can do all their cooking and stuff on Wednesday, and then you can enjoy your Thanksgiving on Thursday, alright, so, and then November 22nd, 7th, excuse me, we're going to have kids, Christmas choir is going to begin their practicing after the evening service, so if you want your children to be part of the kids' Christmas choir this year, they'll be performing on Christmas day, so, and then Ryan's got the songs all ready, and hopefully he'll send those out soon, I don't know if he's already done it or not, but, and then if the men want to get together and do a men's choir again this year, I'm okay with it, I thought you guys did a good job, I liked it, or if the ladies want to do something, or if you all want to do something together, the men can stand on this side and the ladies on this side, like we're pilgrims or something, but anyway, I'm okay with stuff, I just want someone to take the bull by the horns and get it done, so, but if you guys are wanting to do something like that, you're more than welcome to, December 10th is the cookie exchange, the Christmas cookie exchange, it's at the Bender residence, please bring three dozen cookies, of your best cookies, and then make sure that 10% goes to pastor, just kidding, the pie, I'm going to get the pie out of you somehow, I'm just joking, I'm only kidding, so, that's going to be a fun day. That's going to be a fun time, and then December 25th, of course, is Christmas day, so, we're going to alter the schedule though, it'll be a 10am service, and then we're going to do a prime rib dinner, we always do a prime rib dinner around Christmas time, but, you know, if you show up for Christmas, you're going to get blessed, then you better pay attention in the sermon that starts at 1 o'clock, ish, so, depends on how long my first sermon goes, we'll see, maybe I'll just cut, I'll just make one sermon, then I'll automatically, no, I just need to chop it in half, and then preach the other one at 1 o'clock, so, anyway, also, I just want to remind you about the Romans Road app, that is at the Google Play store, or, I think it's in iTunes, so, it's just called Romans Road app, and it basically just kind of shows you how to do soul winning, and go soul winning, and it gives you all the verses, it also has all of our preaching is uploaded to that, and preaching from other churches that we're doing, from other churches that we're friends with, is uploaded to that, what else, there's the King James Bible, you can click on it, and Alexander Scorby will take you through the scriptures, and pronounce everything correctly for you, and it's a great app, and it's something that you, I mean, it's not going to take up too much, unless you've got Sheila's bandwidth on her phone, then you can't upload it, sorry, I'm just kidding, so, you got to get more gigabytes, people, alright. The sermon tonight is called gigabytes, but, and then I also wanted to remind everybody, I'm probably not going to remind everybody every week about the King James conference, but I just wanted to let everybody know that we are having a King James Bible conference, and that is going to be May 25th through the 28th, so it'll be Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, so we'll have some special speakers that are coming to preach for us, Pastor Jonathan Shelley from Steadfast Baptist Church will be preaching for us Thursday, Friday we'll have Pastor Steven Andrews, and Saturday Pastor Roger Jimenez will be preaching for us at 10 a.m., and then Pastor Jones will be here to preach for us on Sunday morning, and we're going to have like a QA session with him, and after each sermon, and we'll do lots of other stuff, I know Brother Steven said he would do like a calligraphy booth, where, if you want that old English etched in your back, no I'm just kidding, if you just want like a Bible verse written out really nicely, Brother Steven does a lot of, great art type work, so he's going to set that up, and we'll probably have sword drills, and give away nice Bibles, we'll probably have Bibles from all nations up here, or something like that, so it'll be cool, I'm really looking forward to it, we definitely have to get some more chairs in here, and anyways, that's exciting, and remember we're a family integrated church, that means children and infants are welcome during the church services, please make the back rows available for families with young children, and no dads in the mother baby room, or mothers in the dad baby room during the services, please, and if they are being super distracting or disruptive, please take them to the mother baby, right on cue, my own grandkid, so take that baby out of here, no. But yeah, if they become super distracting or disruptive, or just screaming, pop their lungs, please take them out for a little bit, and then bring them back in when they're saying in their right minds, and we'd be appreciative of that, the rockers and gliders were pregnant, and nursing mothers and elders only, let's see, no food in the assembly area, please silence your cell phones at this time, if you would please, escorts to vehicles are available by the ushers, upon request, they're the guys with the jackets that say, have a pen, a gold pen that says, and they'd be happy to walk you to your car, online donations are available on our website, and text giving number, and you can see the ties that came in for the month of October, and then birthdays, Julian's birthday was Monday, right, so just wanted to let everybody know again, it was Julian's birthday on Monday, and then Sela, so Sela's birthday was on the 11th, which is what, tomorrow, so I guess it hasn't happened yet, but the mic here, is it your birthday today, yeah, we're gonna sing happy birthday to you, so you're here, so let's sing happy birthday, everybody. Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday, God bless you, happy birthday to you. He's 55, but he doesn't look at folks, just kidding, now happy birthday brother, thanks for coming tonight, and choosing to come to our church for your birthday, it makes me feel special, it makes me feel like our church is special, so that's all I have for announcements, let's sing another song, and then we'll receive the offering. Let's turn to page 176, we're gonna sing Jesus Loves the Little Children, page 176, sing it out loud. Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world, red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight, Jesus loves the little children of the world, again. Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world, red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight, Jesus loves the little children of the world. Amen, great singing. At this time we'll receive our offering. Brother Alex, can you bless your offering for us? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Amen. Thank you. To him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Peace be with you all that are in Christ Jesus. Amen. Brother Brandon, can you pray for us? Amen. Well, we are finishing the book tonight like I said. We only got to four, I think to three verses last week. We're actually going to start off in verse number three. number three. The title of my sermon tonight is, The Devil Wants to Devour You. The devil wants to devour you. I'm going to try to use my glasses tonight, so forgive me if I fumble around a little bit because of it, but I'm trying to get used to wearing them. So anyway, so the devil wants to devour you is the title of the sermon. Let's look down at verse number three. It says, neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being in samples to the flock. So last week I talked about how a shepherd, the responsibilities of a shepherd and went pretty in depth into that and I kind of ended on that thought about being in samples and how being an example is not exactly the same as being an in sample. An in sample is always a human person that you're emulating or that you are being, you know, you're showing your quality of character, but sometimes there's people that are bad in samples. So, but you know, the King James is always right. You know, when the Bible is translated as in samples instead of examples, I'm sure if you, and actually I'm going to give a couple people some work to do right now while you're not paying attention to me anyway. Look up the NIV brother, Sean, brother Alex, look up the NASB and then a new King James, Brandon, brother Robert, do you want to look one up? The NIV or the HIV? No, I'm just kidding. But I want to see what that verse says, but while you guys are turning there, let me know if you get to the spot and see if it, if it says something, if it says examples instead of in samples, I'd like to have you raise your hand. Come on guys. You're killing me. I know it's, a lot of times when I'll search things on Google, it'll just automatically put KJV after it, because I've just searched so many KJV verses. Yeah, yeah. Examples? So an example would be where it can be a human, it can be human qualities, but it's also an, you know, an example like a pattern. So like an inanimate object or something like that. So it says examples? Yeah. So I mean, the modern versions think you're too stupid to realize what the difference between in samples and examples is. So anyway, it just, the superiority of the King James just, you know, plays out over and over again. So anyway, and it says, when the chief shepherd shall appear, you shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away. So in first Peter chapter five verse one through three, it kind of just gives the things that the Bible says a shepherd is supposed to do. And Peter reminds us that he is also an elder. So elder, bishop, shepherd, those terms are used synonym, or interchangeably in the Bible. And obviously a bishop, you know, they're different words, but they represent different aspects of what a pastor or a shepherd would do. And, you know, the Bible says that, you know, he gave some evangelists, you know, apostles, evangelists, and, you know, it gives that list and it says pastors and teachers. And there's no more apostles. So, you know, what basically what you have left over is evangelists and pastors. It says pastors. So when Peter's talking, he's talking as a pastor here. He's an, but he calls himself an elder. So an elder could be someone that's just older than somebody, and sometimes that's what it is talking about in the Bible, but in this context that's not what it's talking about. It's talking about someone that's an elder in the faith. Someone could be 23 years old and spiritually older than a 53 year old person that's never read their Bible cover to cover, but maybe that 23 year old has read his Bible cover to cover, you know, 30 times. So which one, you know, and applies those things and lives those things. So which one do you think is more of an elder in the faith? It's obviously the 23 year old that actually is a mature Christian versus, you know, a 53 year old that doesn't know the Bible at all. You could be a 53 year old that just got saved and there could be a 6 year old that knows the Bible better than you. I mean, so when you're talking spiritual terms, those things apply. So we got to understand that you could still be a baby and be saved for 20 years if you've never, if you've never read the Bible cover to cover one time, you're still a baby in Christ. So you're a baby. So which is, there's nothing wrong with being a babe, but at some, at some point you kind of got to grow up, right? So anyway, it says, and when the chief shepherd, who's the chief shepherd? Jesus, right? So Jesus is the chief shepherd. Pastors have been given to be the under shepherd. Of course, Jesus Christ is the head of the church and he's the savior of the body. The body that it's talking about is the body of Christ and we believe in a New Testament independent church that's not reigned over by some pope or even if it's an independent Baptist pope, we're still not reigned over by any other pastor. We have our own church, our own pastor, our own people, and we're not like in some network of a good old boys club or whatever. We get accused of being that way, but I haven't text Pastor Anderson anything I preach I don't think ever since I've been here. Like, hey, is it okay if I preach this? But that's kind of what we get accused of. You know, Pastor Menes was my pastor and I did do what he said because he was my pastor. So, but then when the strings were cut and I was ordained, then that changed and now Pastor Menes, when he comes, he's a guest of ours, he's an honored guest, but he's not the pastor of the church anymore. So, I don't know, hopefully that makes sense to you. But, uh, when the chief shepherd shall appear, you shall receive a crown of glory that faith not away. And this is specifically talking to a pastor that's faithful in the things that they've been asked to do because it says in verse 2, if you just look up a couple verses there, it says, feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly, not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind. So, you know, Peter was told by Jesus himself, feed my lambs, feed my sheep, feed my sheep. He told them three times to feed the flock of God and you can, you know, obviously we're supposed to feed the church the word of God, but feed would indicate caring also, right? I mean, if you're feeding, it's kind of like, it means that you're supposed to take care of the sheep too because it obviously says that, taking the oversight thereof, I'm supposed to watch, you know, and Bugs Bunny, they used to have these, like, the sheep dog versus the coyote or whatever, I don't know if anybody knows what I'm talking about, but the sheep dog, like, had the hair that went over the top of his eyes and then he would go like this, he would stand up on, like, a hill and look out, he would, like, put his paw up and watch the sheep and then the coyote would come and try to do something stupid and then he'd always grab the coyote and, you know, punch it in the face or whatever and the coyote tried all these tricks to try to get over on him and steal these sheep or eat these sheep, but, you know, the person, the sheep dog was the one watching over the sheep and he just never was able to get one over on him. So, if you think about it, that's kind of what the overseeing is supposed to be like, you know, and as the pastor of the church, I'm supposed to care for everybody in the church, not just for the people I like, not just for the people that are my tribe or whatever, you know, which I would say my family, my wife, my children that attend this church or my grandchildren, I'm not just here to care for them, I'm here to care for every single member of this church, every single person that comes to this church I should care about and I do. So, I think that that's important, I think that that's kind of what Peter's talking about here. Also, it says, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, not because I have to, but because I want to. So, the job of a pastor isn't something that like, and I kind of mentioned this last week is where people will actually become or go into some Bible college or some kind of ministry or some kind of college of some sort and then try to get a doctorate degree or whatever in ministry or whatever and they are doing that because that's, you know, some people are doing that because they want to get paid and make ministry how they make their money and how they retire and a lot of people that do that are charlatans and they're hirelings, they're people that, you know, basically they just got in it so that they could support their family so they could do that but like, you know, honestly if that's someone's motivation for becoming a pastor or a shepherd, that's kind of a weird motivation and money shouldn't be the first thing that you think about as a shepherd or as a pastor. So, and then it says not willingly but of a, or not a filthy lucre but of a ready mind and that ready mind it's talking about there is talking about ready to spring into action. You're ready to do the job so a pastor shouldn't be some novice that just, you know, got saved three weeks ago and all of a sudden he's declaring himself to be the pastor. He's never gone soloing, he doesn't know his Bible, he's never read his Bible and, you know, there are qualifications that a pastor has to have to become a pastor in the first place. I mean Jesus trained the apostles for three years and lived with them and walked with them and taught them all manner of things and at the end of that three years Jesus was crucified and so he was sent them out. So there is training that takes place, you know, it doesn't say when some of those apostles got saved, they probably, some of those guys were probably saved way before that but when they got the call to become full time apostles that changed everything and they went through that training course basically and that's how they started the ministry but they didn't go to Bible college did they? They didn't go to Northwest Theological Cemetery or whatever and, you know, some people go to Bible college and it's helpful to them or whatever but I personally think that in a local church if someone's going to get trained to be the pastor it should be the pastor that trains another pastor and nobody gets an ordination from Bible college. You're ordained by, you know, you're ordained to be an elder not because of the piece of paper that you got after you graduated, you're ordained because you've been found faithful so the day that I got ordained Pastor Menes asked the church like are you, do you guys agree that I'm, I should ordain him, I'm going to ordain him. It was kind of like a speak now or forever hold your peace, it was like I was just like is somebody going to jump up and say something, you know, but everybody agreed and there was like an amen and then he ordained me, laid his hands on me, charged me with what he charged me with and that was it. So, you know, the laying on of hands is a biblical concept and that is how I believe, I believe saved people beget saved people, the gospel is preached from faith to faith but I also believe that, you know, ordained people ordain other elders and those people start churches and that's kind of how it's supposed to go. So if you got your ordination out of a crackerjack box then you're not biblically ordained in my opinion but anyway that's not part of the sermon. Let me get into the nitty gritty of this. I just kind of want to recap a little bit about last week and how, you know, it's the job of an elder or a shepherd or a bishop or a pastor is not something to be taken lightly. There are qualifications and it is a job that you should be willing to do not because you have to, not for money but of a ready mind, not being lords over God's heritage. You know, I don't do white glove tests at your house to make sure you're keeping your house clean. I don't come over and see what DVDs you have on your shelf. I don't come over and see what you're watching at night. I don't believe it's right for me to meddle in people's lives. I preach the Bible, you respond to it. That's your job. The Holy Spirit, you know, is the one that, you know, inspired the Bible. It's the Word of God and so when the Bible gets preached, you know, you either receive it or you don't. Either, you know, put it in place in your life or you don't. That's my job is to feed the sheep and cultivate everything, make sure you have, you know, the Word of God being preached to you and to oversee and if there's wolves that come in, it's my job to drive them out. It's my job to grab the wolf and so to speak punch them and make, you know, to grab them like the sheep dog did in the cartoon and throw them out, right? Not literally necessarily but sometimes, hey, if I have to throw somebody out, I'll pick them up and throw them right out the front door, you know. We need to, as pastors, we need to guard the sheep and watch out for the sheep. That's part of the job. So, anyway, let's look at verse number 5. It says in verse number 5, likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder, yea, all of you be subject one to another. So now Peter's like basically saying, yeah, submit yourselves to the young. So now here it is talking about younger but is it necessarily talking about just someone younger in general? I mean obviously we should respect our elders. That's a principle that America used to have and I know a lot of other countries probably have that too. It's kind of just like it's entrenched in society, you know, the seniority so to speak, you know, because who was the favored son? The first born, the oldest son, right? And that's how inheritance took place. They would get a double portion of the inheritance and that's just like, that's just how society is. So there is an aspect of submitting yourselves to, you know, a younger person, submitting themselves to an older person but obviously, you know, don't do what some random person in our church tells you to do, kids, you know, as far as like if your parents already told you not to do something and then someone's saying, hey, yeah, go ahead and do that, like no, you go to your parents first. They're your authority. But obviously if you're about to hurt yourself or, you know, something's about to go wrong and an adult tells you or stops them from following or, you know, whatever, like obviously you should still respect your elders and that's why it's, I mean, I believe it's talking here about literal younger submitting themselves to an older person but also I believe the younger in the faith submitting themselves because, I mean, I was getting badgered by this person that's like basically thrown out of our church in England yesterday and I should have just, you know, just ignored the messages but the person was trying to call me over and over again on my WhatsApp and stuff and it was weird because they were like trying to bring up the doctrine of Jesus going to hell or whatever and I wasn't really sure like what they're asking me. It was really confusing but they're talking about how Andrew Sluder follows Pastor Anderson. I'm like I don't think that you understand exactly who Andrew Sluder is but anyway that doesn't matter but the point is is that every time I try to say something to answer this person's question they would automatically just say oh you're a hireling, you know, the hireling flees when the, you know, and this is like I've been sent this message by this person multiple times so has Brother Ian and I don't know why they're just stuck on that but like basically they're trying to say that Jesus is the only person that is a good shepherd. He is the good shepherd but he's not the only person that is a good shepherd because if you're a good shepherd, you know, when the chief shepherd appears you're going to get a crown of glory that fades not away so obviously there are pastors that do a good job. There are pastors that, you know, obviously none of us are Jesus, none of us died for your sins but, you know, we're still trying to do the best job we can and, you know, Jesus is going to reward that when he appears to a pastor that do a good job. So this person was just being really weird. I finally just had to block them but, you know, basically they had a, some people just have a problem where they can't take any correction at all. If someone can't take any correction at all I can't even talk to that person. I'll give them a chance for a few minutes or whatever but then I'm just like okay I'm done with this person because what are you going to tell somebody that knows everything? How are you going to help somebody that already has all the answers? Like why are you even coming to me if you already know all the answers? And you're telling me like what's a hireling? I give the dictionary.com definition of it and then Jesus' own definition in John chapter 10 where it says that the hireling flees because they're a hireling. What is a hireling? It's someone that just got hired to do a job for money only. They don't care about the work they're doing. They don't care about the people that they're supposed to be working for. So anyway, that's just an example of people that just, you know, they can't get it. They just have no respect for authority. They have no desire to follow people. They just, I just don't understand people like that. It's like why are you even asking me questions if you already know the answers? It's like people that like to opinion shop. Well pastor, what do you think about me doing this? It's like well here's what the Bible says. It's like okay. Then they go to the next person. Hey, what do you think, you know, they'll go to another pastor. Hey pastor, what do you think this means? Or whatever. And they're just like opinion shopping until someone agrees with the opinion that they have. That's not really seeking counsel. That's you just trying to make sure that you're justified in whatever decision you're going to make. That's not, that's not, you know, when you ask for counsel about something, you should listen to that counsel. Obviously you don't have to obey every counsel that someone gives you, but you should like consider that and not just already have a preconceived notion about what you think is right or wrong. So look what it says in verse 5 in our text. It says, likewise younger submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another and be clothed with humility. So what does that mean? Be humble. And it says, for God resisted the proud and giveth grace to the humble. What does he do with the proud? He resists them. So people that are proud of heart, people that think that they're right all the time, you know, God resists people like that. So he gives grace to people that are humble. What does that mean? Well, if someone's humble, then when they're doing something that maybe might not be 100% right, but they're humble, God's going to have a little bit more grace with them than he is with somebody that's obstinate and proud and can't be corrected, stiffens their neck, hardens their heart. God can't work with people like that. You know, what was the devil's fall for? Pride. What is the whole, you know, the mantra of the queers today? You know, pride. You know, God hates pride. God despises pride. God despises pride. And anybody that's proud in heart is not going to get saved. You know, there are people that can, you know, start off proud or maybe they get proud at some point and they get a base and then they can get it right and God can, you know, forgive them or save them or whatever. Like, I mean, if you think about Nebuchadnezzar, he was really proud, wasn't he? He was like, look at this Babylon, which I have built. And it's like, God's the one that gave you that kingdom, buddy. You weren't really as great as you think you are. You're the head of gold because God made you the head of gold. You're the king of Babylon because God made it so. And then he acts like he's the one that did everything. And then what happened? He's running around scratching and eating grass like an ox and growing his fingernails long and looking like a bird or whatever for like seven years. And then he was humbled and he gave glory to the God of heaven. So Nebuchadnezzar was able to be humbled, but look how long it took him. Seven years. Seven years to get humble and get right. So look what it says in verse six. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time. Now, sometimes words don't get defined. You just think, well, what does exalt mean? And let me just tell you what exalt means. It means to hold someone or something in very high regard, think or speak highly of, raise to a higher rank or position of greater power, make noble in character, dignify. So basically God says through the Holy Spirit, humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time. Does that mean you're going to get exalted the first time you're ever humble? Because people will like try this experimental, I'm going to try to do this and try to be this good person. I'm going to try this Jesus thing or whatever. And it's just like, you know, listen, if you're not humble, God's not going to use you, okay? And God's not going to use, you know, he's not going to just exalt you the first time you're humble. It's like, oh, you know, God's supposed to just come down and pat you on the back and, you know, rub your shoulders. Oh yeah, you're such a good boy. You know, yeah, you're so humble. You humbled yourself one time. It's like, no, it says in due time. What's due time? Well, whenever he feels like doing it. But at some point the promise is there if you humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time. That means that he's going to think highly of you. He's going to speak highly of you. He's going to raise you to a higher rank because doesn't the Bible say that in the millennium we'll rule and reign with him? Well, obviously we're ruling and reigning over somebody. It's not like, hey, you know, I'm ruling and reigning over you wife. It's like, no, you did that before the millennium started. So I don't, I mean, I don't know exactly who all we're going to be ruling over, but some people will be higher ranked than others because that's how a chain of command goes. You know, every company has someone that's the head of that company and then they have people that they have working for them that are, you know, managers or whatever, then supervisors under that, leads under them, and then just, you know, regular, you know, laborers or whatever. Everybody has some kind of person that's under them and you might be the lowest person in the rankings, but maybe that person wasn't very humble. Maybe that person was always proud. Maybe that person on earth was proud and maybe they had more ability and more clout and more money, more physical ability, better looking while they were here on this earth, but that doesn't mean anything when it comes to God. See, that's how the world does things. That's how the world measures things. Who's the most beautiful person in Hollywood? Who cares? You know, they put their makeup on with paint sprayers anyway. They hide their pimples with graphics or whatever. It's like, they're, who cares? What do they look like on the inside? They're ugly. They're full of dead men's bones. They're disgusting on the inside. They're like, kill your babies. Watch my movies. You know, guns are bad. You shouldn't shoot guns. And they're like, every movie they're in, they're like, just like killing people en masse with all kinds of different guns and, you know, but on the outside, you're like, isn't that a mixed message? Like, don't be, you know, don't, we need to get rid of guns as soon as possible, but you have every single one in your Terminator movies or whatever. It's like, it's just weird. You know, they're like, Hollywood's teaching us morality, but that's the way it always is because the world falls after that which is not right. They exalt things like that. They look at the proud and they're like, I want to be like that person. It's just like athletes that are professional athletes. I can't stand it when they, you know, do their little stupid dances after they made one tackle. It's like, big deal. You just got burned for a touchdown on the one after that. So like, really, or was it that great of a play where you're all having to dance and like do this in the end zone and, you know, stupid. Whatever happened to just scoring a touchdown and just like handing the ball to the referee, that's humility. There was a football partner named Barry Sanders and he was a really great running back in the NFL a long time ago, one of the best of all time, and he never danced after he scored a touchdown and he always walked up and handed the ball to the referee right afterwards. It's like, that's humble. You know, he retired and just retired. That was it. He was done. Never like needed to go back to football. He just made the money he needed to make, tied to his Baptist church and, you know, that was it. So I don't know if he was saved or what kind of Baptist church he went to, but his dad was a pastor or something like that. But like, you can see the difference between how someone that's really super worldly would act. You know, Richard Sherman acted like he did the best thing ever when he knocked down a pass in the, you know, the NFC Championship game or whatever. It's like, I'm the greatest in the game. Is he the greatest in the game still? No, because you get old, you get tired, your body gets worn out, and then you're not the greatest in the game anymore. Now you're doing a podcast and talking about the good old days. But, you know, there's a lot of people out there that are proud today and everything in our society seems to like just be anchored by all this pride and, you know, good looks and great cars and great houses and just everything is just vanity and proud, just proudness. People that are filled with pride. But that is, those things to God are nothing. He wants us as Christians to be humble, to be clothed with humility. Look at 1 Corinthians 1, verse 25, 1 Corinthians 1, verse 25. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 1, verse 25, it says, and let me just explain this also to you while you're turning there. When it says to humble yourselves, that means God's going to exalt you. But isn't that the opposite of what the world teaches? They're like, hey, I got to show everybody how great I am. I got to show everybody how I'm the best worker in the company. And I don't care whose back I have to stab to get to the top. That's kind of the world we live in. So it's hard as Christians for us to fit into these types of societies a lot of times because we know what we're supposed to be, but then we see people getting rewarded by the world for doing the opposite. But God says, you know, that he wants us to be different than that. Look at 1 Corinthians, chapter 1, verse 25, it says, because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For you see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. So he's talking about people that are called for what? Being saved, ministry, whatever it is, but it says not many wise men after the flesh. You know why? Because most wise people in this world are lifted up and puffed up in their brains, thinking, you know, professing themselves to be wise, they become fools. It says not many mighty, all these mighty men that play football and hockey and basketball and you know, they got everything that they want, they're driving flashy cars, they have beautiful women and all this other stuff, you know, they're just like, but God doesn't call those mighty people, does he? It says not many mighty, not many noble, like people that would be rulers and things like that, kings and queens are called. But God had chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and God had chosen the weak things of this world to confound the things which are mighty. So everything that the world holds up in this high standard, God is like, you know what, I'm going to just do the opposite and it's still going to be better than everything that they can do. The weakness of God is better, is stronger than men, and the foolishness of God is wiser than men. And God's not foolish. But if there was, you know, whatever is at the end of his intelligence spectrum is still better than anything a man can produce. That's the point, right? And it says in verse 28, and base things of the world, and things which are despised hath God chosen. You know what people despise when you knock on their doors and tell them how to get saved? They despise that. That is something that people just hate. They put all these different, you know, signs on their door, we've found, we got a vacuum cleaner, we found God, you know, we got as many cookies as we need or whatever, and they're doing that so that religious people won't. That means religious people too, you know. And why? Because they despise the way God said to go out and do things. And so because of that, they meet us with a lot of anger sometimes, and they get upset. And that's why, because God's chosen the base things that the world, they think that it's base, but God says, you know what, the base, the thing that they think is the dumbest thing, that's what I'm going to use to win this world of Christ. Because that's God. That's how He does things. And He can do what He wants because it's His world. He made it, right? And the things that are despised hath God chosen. Yea, and things which are not, to bring to naught things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence. This is the point. What God, God doesn't like people that aren't humble. And He doesn't like people that glory in His presence and act like they're better than what they really are because in reality we're all sinful, we all messed up some way, shape or form today. I'm sure nobody in this room lived a perfect day today. Who lived the perfect day today? You did everything right, you didn't think any bad thoughts at all, you didn't say any bad words, or you didn't, you know, you were just perfect. You parked the car perfect, you pumped your gas perfect, you know, you put the debit card in, you know, dee dee dee dee, you got the pin number perfect, everything you did was just perfect today? You made your bed to look perfect? Did you even make your bed? What's wrong with you? No, I'm just kidding. Nobody lives a perfect day. And so for flesh to get up in front of God and just be like, hey, you know, pat me on the back, God, I did something humble today. Like, God's just like, what are you talking about? It's so weird that people just have that kind of a prideful attitude. But you know, our job is to be humble. And it's kind of a paradox, because what the world sees and what the world wants and what the world lifts up is opposite of the way God wants us to do things. But yet, they're being exalted in this world. But you know, one day, we're going to be exalted, and kings and queens and whatever. And we're going to rule and reign with Christ for 1000 years. And you know what? We're still going to be with them even after the 1000 years. We're going to enjoy eternity future. So it's a paradox because our current world, you know, it's a seemingly absurd or self-con, you know, what is a paradox? A paradox is a seemingly absurd or self-contradictory statement or proposition that when investigated or explained may prove to be well-founded or true. That's what a paradox is. So a paradox, you know, is saying be humble so you can be exalted. But that's not how people do things in the world. They act proud so that people will go, you know, they'll do some like gymnastic flip or something, and you know, they'll do all these cartwheels, and then they'll land and they'll go like this. And what do they want people to do? They want people to clap for them, right? Because they did some super move or something. But that's not how God operates. And look, I'm not trying to get down on anybody that's ever played sports or whatever. I'm not saying that. I'm just saying that it gets taken to a weird level. And athletes are downright worshiped. They're exalted as gods in the earth. And it gets strange. And look, I like football. I'm a man. I'm American. And I like football. I like when people run into each other. And you know, I like that. I like the sport. But what I don't like is all the dances and all that stuff at the end. It's just stupid. It's like, just shut up and play the game, man. It would be a lot better if they didn't allow them to do all that. So our job is to be humble, the opposite of proud, and when we're humble, God will exalt us. Look at Matthew chapter 23 verse 10. Matthew chapter 23 verse 10. Of course there's a lot of verses I could go to about being humble because God talks about it a lot. And why do you think he talks about it so much? When God talks about something a lot, it's generally because people aren't getting the message. It's just like he sent prophets, and he sent preachers, and it's like over and over again he will keep just hammering it home until finally he's just like, okay, obviously they're not going to receive the message. And then he has to get ugly with things. But look at Matthew chapter 23 verse 10. It says, Neither be called masters, for one is your master, even Christ. Why got a master of divinity at such and such college? Oh, you're so great. You're so cool. Jesus said don't be called masters because there's only one master and that's Christ. Verse 11, But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant. That doesn't compute for the world, but for us that is the way God wants it. Verse 12 says, And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased. And what does that word abased mean? It means brought low or diminished. So when you exalt yourself, this is a red letter, if you have a red letter Bible doesn't it say whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased. That's Jesus talking. And he shall, excuse me, and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted. That is the paradox. Because that is not how our world operates. That is not how our world works. But that's how God wants us to work. And that's something that we need to definitely get a hold of because he wouldn't just keep talking about it for no reason over and over again. So now I am going to tell a story about myself, but I'm not trying to be the hero of the story, okay? Because I'm like sitting here talking about, you know, being a bass and all this. I just, it just made me think of this time when I, and I played, I did play football growing up, but there was a guy that played on my football team and he was like a super athlete. You know, everybody exalted him. He was really good. He was, he hit hard. He was the running back that scored all the touchdowns. He was just a really gifted athlete. You know, he was one of the most prolific scorers in high school basketball history in Oregon. He was really good. I mean, he beat me and four other guys at the same time at basketball. That's how good he was. And I was okay at the time, but I wasn't, you know, not as good as he was obviously. But one time we were in practice and, you know, we were doing like a tackling drill and he just like, he just thought he was just going to brush me off or whatever and stiff on me or whatever, but I just, I tackled him and he got pissed off and just like smashed the ball into my helmet or whatever. And like the coaches were like, hey, what are you doing? Or whatever. And I was just like, okay, whatever. I just walked to the back of the, the, the, the drill line or whatever. And that guy ended up, he just threw this gigantic fit because the coaches dared to say something to him because, you know, who, who is he? Well, I should be able to mistreat this guy because I'm so great. I'm such a great athlete. And in reality at that moment, like, and again, I wasn't like, I was just like, you know, trying to, I didn't want to, I didn't want the conflict, you know, but I was just doing my job, you know, and the coaches actually took my side, which I was very surprised about actually. And he ended up going, I quit and like threw his helmet on the ground and just like walked off and his dad was yelling at the coaches or whatever. But, you know, he's just an example of an athlete just been babying his whole life and he's so great that nobody dares say anything to him. But then, you know, in that moment I, you know, and obviously I wasn't saved at that time, but like, you know, that's, that's an example of someone that's just, you know, humbly doing their job. And then the person that's proud and lifted up ends up getting, you know, cut down. He gets a base for what he did and then he had to come hat in hand and apologize and he had to apologize and come shake my hand or whatever. And I was just like, I don't even, I didn't even care. But I just thought it was a fitting story because, you know, this golden boy had to, had to, you know, come hat in hand and apologize. So, but anyway, let's turn to James chapter four verse ten, James four ten. It's the last verse I'll talk to you about being humble. Then you can just read some verses at home, get it right. No, I'm just kidding. James four ten says, humble yourselves in the side of the Lord and he shall lift you up. But notice how it says humble yourselves in the side of the Lord. You know, you can humble yourself in front of other people and that's good, but like who should you really be humbling yourself in front of? It should be God because he's ultimately the one that's going to lift you up. He's the one teaching this principle. He's the one teaching the principle that, you know, that he's going to, he's going to resist the proud and give grace to the humble. He's going to exalt the person that's humble and it says, you know, if you're humble in the side of the Lord, he's going to lift you up. Remember Ahab was like a really wicked king and he did a lot of stupid things and his wife pretty much ran the house or whatever, but in the end he was, he sent a prophet, he sent Elijah the prophet to talk to him and then Ahab actually humbled themselves and put on sack, himself, put on sackcloth and then God like said, see how he humbleth himself. Like, I believe that that's the only reason why Ahab wasn't destroyed before the time because he did show some humbleness, some humble pie, he ate some crow there and was actually humble. So, I mean, some people say, well, does that mean he was saved? I mean, I don't know. It could be because he was proud before, wasn't he? He did a lot of proud things and he did a lot of wicked things. Maybe he was saved, I don't know, but he definitely humbled himself and God saw that he humbled himself, actually mentioned it to the prophet and then basically didn't pronounce all that judgment against his sons until after he was dead. So, 1 Peter chapter 5 or 7, back in our text, it says, casting all your care upon him for he careth for you. Who are we talking about? Jesus Christ, right? So casting all your care upon him, the great shepherd, for he careth for you. He's the great shepherd. He's the one that's got our back. He's the one that said he'll never leave us nor forsake us. Now, just let this verse sink in because, you know, we brush over verses too. You know, sometimes we brush over what words mean, but we also brush over verses. This is a really powerful verse for a Christian to get a hold of. Casting all your care upon him for he careth for you. So all the care, you know, when it's talking about care, it's talking about the things that make us have anxiety, the things that we worry about in life. I don't know if we're going to have enough money to get by. I don't know, you know, this gas shortage is really just taking it out of me and, you know, people are starting to struggle right now and it hasn't even really hit that hard yet. But instead of fretting and worrying about it and making all these, you know, dramatic changes, you know, what about you just throw those cares upon Jesus? Because, you know what, he cares for you. And he, you know, he's not going to make his people starve or beg for bread. David said I was young and now I'm old and I've never seen the righteous, you know, begging for bread, you know, begging for seed and begging for bread or whatever. I probably didn't quote that right, but you know what I'm talking about. So he hasn't seen the righteous forsaken or his seed begging for bread. That's how it goes. All right, thank you. But that's true, right? God's never going to leave us nor forsake us. You know, who cares if all this, if the whole world and the economy collapses, God is still going to take care of us. We can pass our cares upon him because he cares for us. Isn't it great to know that someone that died for the sins of the whole world, the most famous man that ever walked the face of the earth, a man that was truly humble, but yet he was great, God hath highly exalted him because, why? Because he was humble. Because he came in the form of a servant. And so that man who's been given a name greater than all men on the face of the planet, the name that people in order to be saved must call upon, cares for you. He cares for us. He cares for your children. He cares for your needs. The things that you have anxiety about, he cares about those things. And you know what? He's got big shoulders. He can carry the load. He carried the load for the sin of the whole world. And you know what? He can care for your little problems that you have affording to pay for some gas. Being anxious about getting the perfect pump. No, I'm just kidding. Exactly how much money you have left in your bank account. I was talking about the perfect day earlier. But you know what I'm saying? We get worried about stuff that we shouldn't really get worried about because we have the God of the whole universe that cares for us. The very number of our head, or the hairs of our head are numbered. And mine are less than they were last year, I'm sure. I didn't realize I was bald for like years and my kids didn't have the, they didn't want to hurt my feelings or something. And I finally saw, I never looked at myself, I never looked at the back of my hair in the mirror. I just never really felt the need to. And I looked and I was like, I'm bald. What happened? But God knows where those hairs went. And how many I have now that I'm bald in the back. But He cares for us. And you know, He's someone that you can talk to. He's someone that can counsel you. When you don't want to take your problems to anybody else, you can take them to Him. He's never going to tell anybody about it. He's not going to go, guess what, so and so told me, you know. Look, He cares about us. He loves us. And He's always going to do the right thing. And He's someone that you can always put your worries upon. Look at Philippians chapter 4 verse 6. Philippians chapter 4 verse 6. This is a really powerful verse here. Philippians chapter 4 verse number 6 says, worry about everything. Is that what it says? Oh, oh, it says, be careful for nothing, but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. So, you know, as long as we're coming to God in the right way, we're not just like, God, how can we just allow this to happen in my life? I'm so mad at you. That's not the right way to come to God. The right way to come to God is through supplication. That's where you're like asking politely. You know, you're giving thanksgiving when He does do it. And it says, let your requests known. I mean, why do we pray every Thursday for our church, churches and church family that's going through a lot of problems? Well, because it's the Bible says that we're supposed to, you know, make our requests known unto God. Right? And hopefully once a week isn't the only time you're praying. And hopefully when we're praying for those things that you're praying along with me and like you really care about the people in our church. Because then the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Very powerful verses are turned to Hebrews chapter 4 verse 15. Hebrews chapter 4 verse 15. The Bible says in Hebrews 4, 15, For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin. So Jesus Christ has become the high priest. There is no more Levitical priesthood. That priesthood goes through the tribe of the lion of the tribe of Judah. And that's the Lord Jesus Christ. But it says that that high priest, it says we don't have a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities. What does that mean? Well, it means that He does feel our infirmities. He does understand what's wrong with us. He does see the temptations that we go through because you know what? He was tempted in all points. In all points. So anything you've ever been tempted with, He's been tempted with. Right? That's what all points means. All means all. We're not Calvinists here. But was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin. So He understands everything about us. He understands the temptations. He understands our infirmities. He just didn't do it Himself. Because if He did, then we wouldn't have a Savior. Look at verse 16. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace. It doesn't say disrespectfully. It says boldly. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Because really, that's what we need. We need a little bit of mercy and we need a little bit of grace. Because we're always in need, aren't we? There's always something going wrong. And if something's going great, maybe you have a great day. Maybe you have a great half day. You know, but you're never going to have a perfect week. You're never going to have a perfect year. You're never going to be without sin. We have to find mercy because we need it. We have to find grace because we need help a lot, don't we? And so we really shouldn't be looking down our nose at other people. And obviously, you know, it's hard not to sometimes when someone just keeps making the same stupid mistakes over and over again and you're just like, man, when are you just going to grab ahold of the truth on this? Or when are you going to get this right in your life? And we have a tendency to look down on people, but you know what? We have our own problems that we need help with, too. Maybe theirs is just a little more apparent than ours is, but you know, we all have problems. We all have sins that we're all trying to overcome, each and every single one of us. And so instead of just looking down your nose at somebody else that's having a lot of problems, how about you just pray for that person? Maybe you'll get a little bit more mercy the next time you decide to do your pet sin, whatever that is, that you just continue to do and can't get victory over. Because we all have things that we need victory over, don't we? Where none of us is going to be perfect next year or the year after that, maybe we'll be a little bit better, maybe we've conquered a couple other sins, but just remember we were probably in a bad state at one point when we first became saved, too. I think most of us, except for Alejandra, she did no sin. But other than her, well I was talking about how people had a bad life and maybe people were just like partying, she's like, I didn't do that. She has other sins, I know you do. One of these days I'm going to touch on them. Let's look at, let's see, 1 Peter 5, we'll go back to there. Well I mean just think about this, and Pastor Mendez gave a really great, he gave a great object lesson about this one time when he was preaching. He was talking about how his daughter can come in, no matter whether he's busy or whatever, and no matter what's going on, and she can always run, and it's okay for her to open his office door at church, but if I just walked up and opened up Pastor Mendez's office without knocking or him calling me to the office, he sends out his people and like, go get Pastor Thompson, bring him back here. So, but if I just felt like, well I'm the first church plant leader, and I'm the first one to get sent out or whatever, and I'm just going to walk up Pastor Mendez's office, I don't have that right. I don't have that ability. But you know who does? His kids. And so think about it that way. Like we're the children of the king of the whole universe, and he cares for us, and he's there for us, and you know what, that's what it's talking about when it says, let's come boldly, let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace. Not, and that's boldly, it's just like hey dad! You know, and obviously we shouldn't be irreverent, but when you're talking about your own dad, I'm just saying, nobody goes, daddy! You know, but you know, he's, you know, father. He's our father, right? And so just like Pastor Mendez's daughter can run in and disturb a meeting that he's in, jump on his lap, ask him for food or whatever, it's the same thing for us. And he does care for us, and we are his children, so he's going to give us preference over anybody else. And you know, we're all, if you're God's child in here, you have that right, and that bold, and the ability to go boldly unto the throne of grace, because Jesus made it so. He's our high priest. We pray to the father through Jesus' son. Okay, 1 Peter 5-8, now we're going to flip the script here and go some, I know I got to hurry up here, but now, you know, because I said the title of the sermon was, Satan Wants to Devour You. So we'll only be here for like another half hour, 45 minutes or so. I'll try to be faster than that. If you need to fall asleep, just do it, you know, do it. Put some toothpicks in your eyes and just try to pay attention for a few more minutes, I'm sorry. All right, be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil as a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour. So all of a sudden it's just kind of like changing, changing levels here, but, you know, being sober is not just necessarily talking about like that you're not drunk. Of course it does mean that, but being sober also means to become serious, sensible, or solemn. So obviously you don't want to be a drunkard, but you also want to make sure that you're serious sometimes, and not everything's a joke. When it comes to Satan, it's not really a joke. So I might tell a joke, forgive me, that's just my nature sometimes, but when it comes to Satan, here's the things it tells us to do. Be sober, be vigilant. So vigilant, what does vigilant mean? It means keeping careful watch for possible danger or difficulties. So when it comes to Satan, we need to be sober, we need to be serious about the things of God, we need to be vigilant about what we're doing, how we're acting, because the devil is our adversary. That means he's our enemy. It's like he hates God, he hates Jesus, and he hates you because you're saved. And it says, as a roaring lion. So lions can roar really loud, they can actually make you have hearing loss, and they are an apex predator. The Bible says that they are the strongest of all beasts. Maybe pound for pound, I don't know what that exactly means, but because I feel like there's other animals that might be able to out-strengthen, but maybe it's like pound for pound, or just the ferocity of them, or whatever it is, but Satan is being represented here as an apex predator, the king of the jungle, right? And it says he walketh about, he walks about seeking whom he may devour. And who does he want to devour? You. He wants to eat you with a smile on his face, and how does he get to do that? Well, he can get to do that by our own actions, but don't just, always remember that Satan is an apex predator. And what is an apex predator? It means that they have no other rivals. They're like, there's apex predators like bear, polar bear, or the apex predator of like, you know, the Arctic or whatever. There are certain animals in different areas that are the main predator or called an apex predator. And the Bible likes to represent Satan in these ways. He also is called what? The great red dragon, right? He's represented as a dragon, a fire-breathing red dragon. And he also is called Leviathan. So, you know, when it's talking about Leviathan, he's the king of all, he's the king of the children of pride, right? So Leviathan, Satan, he's this, he's pictured as this apex predator. And, you know, what do lizards like to do? Have you ever seen like a monitor lizard or like a Komodo dragon? What do they do? They bite something, and then they just devour them, like they just eat them. And it's pretty gross, man. It really, and sometimes they'll eat them from the wrong side and like they're alive, while they're eating them and stuff. They're really brutal. But you know what? You know, there's other different types of these animals. We were talking about tonight when like almost every house like had these big giant dogs. It was really weird. Like it was like a super, it was kind of an uber rich little area there. But everybody had all these like German shepherds. People were walking these big dogs around us the whole time. And the Bible talks about how dogs compass them around and like the dogs of the night, how they go around and wolves circle around their prey and things like that. But that's what God always helps us to take the picture of these false prophets, these wicked people that are employed by Satan, basically. They're his children. They operate like a predator. So why is he saying be sober, be vigilant? Have you ever seen animals that like are not predators? They're deer or buffalo or bison or something like that. And they're at the water's edge. And like, you know, you got all these different predators trying to get it. But before it reveals itself, usually they're just like looking around. They're always paranoid. You ever notice how like these animals in like Africa and the Amazon and stuff, they're always paranoid about stuff, aren't they? Well, you know why they're always paranoid about stuff? Because something's always trying to eat them. And like then when they kind of let their guard down for a second, it's just like, boom, they get taken or whatever. And it's just like, you know, they have to be vigilant. They have to be sober. They have to be paying attention and serious at all times. Otherwise they're going to get eaten. And that's kind of the picture that God's trying to show us here. So we're pictured as sheep, right? The last couple chapters, you know, we've talked a lot about sheep lately. Moses was a pastor who had sheep. He kept the sheep of his father-in-law Jethro, but we're always pictured as sheep, the flock of God, you know, Jesus, the great shepherd. And, but our, who's our enemy? Our enemy, our adversary is the devil. And he has hundreds of thousands of angels that fell with him. And he also has people that are his agents on this earth that are human beings. And so what's the Bible saying? Well, we need to be sober. We need to be vigilant. We need to watch what's going on. So what does the devil want us to do? Well, he wants us to make mistakes, which we do all the time. And why does he want us to make mistakes? So that he can accuse us before God. So that he can do that day and night, right? So, you know, and he's looking to for you to do some major sin so that you can get thrown out of here so that he can then let Satan have his way with you out in the world. That's why it's so important to be involved in a local church and like not to commit the sins that would get you kicked out of church. Obviously, I don't have time to go into all the scriptures, but in 1 Corinthians chapter 5, it says in verse 5, to deliver such and one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh. So when you're thrown, when someone's thrown out for fornicating in church, that person is thrown out and guess what happens? God just says, you know what? Have at them. But what, you know, God doesn't just allow them to be necessarily killed every time, but God uses Satan for his devices too sometimes. Satan takes it out on their flesh because it says for the destruction of the flesh to deliver such and one to Satan. Who's delivering them? Well, when you throw them out for what they've done, whatever, if it's one of those sins, then it sounds to me like Satan is allowed to have his way with you a little bit. He's allowed to destroy your flesh. So Revelation chapter 12 verse 4 says, and his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven and did cast into the earth and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered for to devour her child as soon as it was born. So what does he want to do? Well, he wants to devour the children of God. Isn't that what it said in 1 Peter chapter 5 verse 8? It said that he's roaring about like a lion seeking whom he may devour. So what would he try to do? He tried to devour Jesus when he was born and obviously he was working through Herod and so on and so forth. Verse 13 in the same chapter, you know, Satan wants to persecute us for doing right too. Sometimes we get tested by Satan for doing the right thing. We're like, well, how do we win? Well, you know, obviously God is not going to allow them to, you know, completely destroy us in most cases. Now he will allow us to be killed in some cases, but not in all cases, but it says that in verse 13 in Revelation chapter 12 it says, and when the dragon saw that he was cast into the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child. So he also wants to persecute us for doing right. And Revelation chapter 12 verse 9, if you want to turn there you can, but I'm almost done here. It says, and the great dragon was cast out, in verse 9, that old serpent called the devil and Satan which deceiveth the whole world, he was cast out into the earth and his angels were cast out with him and I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, now has come salvation and strength in the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ for the accuser of our brethren is cast down which accused them before our God day and night. How often does he accuse us? Day and night. So a lot of, who's he accusing? The brethren. People that are saved. And so what's he want to do? He wants his chance to persecute us. He wants his chance to accuse us of something that we've done so he can take that to God and you know God has to punish sin, doesn't he? So when he's accusing, what's he trying to do? He's trying to get God, God you need to punish this person. You know, brother Colin was late to church again. No, I'm just kidding. I don't know, whatever God would, he might not punish you for that, but I'm just saying whatever you're getting punished for, you know, the devil is probably like, you know, come on, come on Spike, get him, get him, you know, trying to get God to smoke us any way he can. He just is going about causing mischief, causing trouble, trying to hurt people. That's just like what he is. And how can we avoid that? Well we might not necessarily be able to avoid the persecution, but you know we can avoid the accusations. Maybe we can get the accusations tapered down a little bit. But you know if you're not right with God in some kind of, some kind of part of your life and you're ignoring that confession to God, because obviously I don't believe you can lose your salvation, but you know what, you can lose favor with God and you can be not right with God. So if you're not right with God, the best thing to do is what? Get right with God. So 1 John 1-9, right? So first, what does 1 John 1-9 say? It says that if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So I mean to me that cuts the accusations down. When you're doing something wrong, get it right. Fix it. And then God will have mercy on you and you won't get beaten down by the devil like he really wants you to. What does he want to do? Look at verse, back in our text at verse 9. 1 Peter 5-9 says, whom resistest steadfast in the faith. So what's he trying to do? Resist people that are steadfast in the faith. Isn't that what it says? Knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. Now I know some people maybe interpret this verse differently, but here's how I interpret it. I interpret this verse to say that, you know, it's kind of a little bit of an encouragement for us that we're not the only ones going through this. If you're steadfast, I mean because I've been focusing on this in my preaching a lot lately, don't fall away, don't get out of church, you know, stay right with God, don't quit on the Christian life because a lot of people quit and the last thing you want to do is quit. But you know what the devil wants to do? He wants to get you to quit. He wants you to find a, he wants to find a reason to get you out. And if you're steadfast that means you're unmovable, right? It means you're not going anywhere, you're not leaving, but what's the devil trying to do? Resist people that are like that. That's my interpretation of that verse. He's trying to make anybody that's in it for the long haul to quit, right? And it says the same afflictions are, so knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren. I don't, I don't take it to mean like your literal blood brother. It's talking about your brethren, the people that are saved in the world. And so there's other people in the world that are going exactly what you're going through who are steadfast in the faith, but what's the devil want to do? He wants to rip you out. He wants to devour you. And he does, he has all different kinds of wiles that he uses to do those things. So this is a warning for us that we need to, you know, if we're steadfast in the faith, just realize, you know, don't get like, I can't believe God's just doing this to me. Why is it just me? Well, it's not just you. It's your brethren in the world that are going through it too. Not everybody in this church is going through the same thing at the same time, but you know, there might be somebody at another church that's going through exactly the same thing that you're going through. And what's he like to do? He likes to attack people's health. He likes to attack people's finances. He likes to attack people's families. He likes to attack people's wives and their children. He wants to attack the pastor. He wants to attack anybody in the church that's doing well. Why? Because his ultimate thing is he wants to get rid of these steadfast people, these people that are steadfast in the faith. So that's my take on those verses. That's what I believe is talking about. That, you know, don't get all upset and think you're the only one going through something because isn't that what Elijah did too? He's like, Lord, you know, I'm the lonely one. I'm the last one. Nobody else is saved besides me. He's like, hey, check it out, Elijah. There's 7,000 men that haven't bowed their knee to Baal nor kissed him on the face. So you're not the only one. That's what he's trying to say. Verse 10, but the God of grace, of all grace, who have called us unto the eternal glory by Christ Jesus after that you have suffered a while, make you perfect, establish, strengthen, settle you. So once you go through all this stuff, then after you've suffered a while, make you perfect, establish, strengthen, settle. So when we go through trials, when we go through things where the adversary is attacking us and accusing us, you know, what's the ultimate goal? Well, that we learn better through adversity. Nobody gets better unless they have adversity in their life. You know, if you make a mistake, you learn from your mistake, don't you? And maybe that mistake hurts, but then you're like, I'm not gonna make that mistake again. That's what a smart person says, but stupid people keep making the same mistake over and over and over again thinking there's gonna be a different result. They would say that person's crazy, but we learn through adversity and we learn patience through trials because you're not gonna get any better if you don't go through anything hard. So God, that's just his way. And you know, the devil, he allows the devil to do certain things, but he, you know, obviously he doesn't want us being destroyed by Satan. So what's he doing? Well, he's warning us to be sober and to be vigilant and to always be watching out for that lion that's ready to devour you. You're like, not gonna sin today. You're just like creeping through the jungle or whatever. It's like, you know, so the devil's just waiting to attack you. And how do we do that? Well, you know, we got to put on the armor of God, right? So that's how, you know, the Bible says, and I'm not gonna have you turn there, but Ephesians 6 says, finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and the power of his might, not be strong in your own power, be strong in the Lord's power, the power of his might. And see then, you know, by putting on the armor of God, he's going to help us and protect us and bless us. Verse 11, to Him be glory, dominion forever and ever. Amen. And then he goes on to talk about, I'm going to skip through this part, but verse 13, I just wanted to mention this really quickly. The church that is at Babylon, elected together with you, salute you. And so doth Marcus, my son. So there's, I've heard people ask questions about this, and here's my take on the Babylon thing. It's either the literal one or the spiritual one. That's my take. Very profound, I know. But, you know, and my guess would be, it's talking about the spiritual Babylon. And what was the spiritual Babylon at this time? Rome. Rome was the spiritual Babylon at this time. That's what I believe he's talking about. Because what happened to the other Babylon? It was overthrown and destroyed and never to be inhabited again. It was overthrown like Sodom and Gomorrah, it says in Isaiah chapter 13. So then it says at the end of it, greet one another with a kiss of charity. Peace be with you all that are in Jesus Christ. Amen. Don't you dare come up and kiss me on the cheek or anywhere else. All right. That was a custom for that time. I'm just kidding. Anyway, let's pray. That's the end. Lord, we just thank you so much for this great, great book. First Peter, Lord, I learned so much studying. I pray, Lord, even though it was a long lesson tonight, I pray that people got something out of it that would help their Christian life. Lord, I pray that it would help my Christian life, Lord. And sometimes when studying, I just find things that are so amazing and so true. And Lord, I pray you'd help us all to apply these things to our lives and that, Lord, we'd serve you better and that we'd be always sober and vigilant and ready for the devil to come after us. And Lord, that we put on the armor of God to protect us. Lord, help us to be humble and not proud. In your name we pray, Lord Jesus. Amen. Amen. Let's turn to page 140. We'll sing our last song this evening. We have an anchor page 140 in your green hymn books. We have an anchor page 140. Sing it out on the first. Will your anchor hold in the storms of life when the clouds unfold, their wings of strife when the strong tides lift and the cables strain? Will your anchor, drift or firm remain? We have an anchor that keeps us warm, steadfast in shore while the billows roll, passing to the rock which cannot move. Grounded firm and deep in the Savior's love, it is safely moored till the war, fortis and well-secured by the Savior's hand. Though the tempest rage and the wild winds blow, not an angry wave shall our bark or flow. We have an anchor that keeps us warm, steadfast in shore while the billows roll, passing to the rock which cannot move. Grounded firm and deep in the Savior's love, when our eyes behold through the gathering night, the city of gold our harbor bright, we shall anchor fast by the heavenly shore, when the storms all pass forevermore. We have an anchor that keeps us warm, steadfast in shore while the billows roll, passing to the rock which cannot move. Grounded firm and deep in the Savior's love. Amen. Great singing. Thank you for attending this evening. I'd like to see you back here Sunday morning at 10 30. I'd like to see you next service. Brother Alex, can you end us with a word of prayer?