Being Watchful | 1 Peter 5:8-14

[Music] you know there is this story that is 28 centuries old it's a story by Homer it's called the Iliad it's the story of the Trojan War the Arcadians versus the Trojans and centers around princess Helen and her kidnapping and it's a legendary story a mythical story and as legend has it there was this hero named Achilles and the legend is that when Achilles was born his mother prayed to the gods that he would become a mighty warrior and she and spose instructed to go and dip him in the river Styx the mythical River that divided the land of the living from the land of the dead and so she did that and the promise was that no weapon would ever be able to pierce his skin and eventually he did become a legendary warrior and Homer tells us about his exploits how he killed Hector who was the champion of Rome of Troy and led the Acadians in battle but unbeknownst to our kilise himself when he was a baby and he was dipped into the river by his mother she had held him by his heels so that his heels did not get covered in the water and the gods tipped off Paris Hector's brother off to this fact so that when he pulled his his back his bow he shot Achilles and hit him in the heels and the wound was fatal and he died and this story is 28 centuries old and the reason that this story has survived is that there is a moral to this story a moral that we can all relate to what is that moral well the moral is this that you are only as strong as your weakest point you are only as strong as your weakest point here was Achilles who seemed invincible but he had a weakness and that weakness led to his destruction you know we all talk today about having an Achilles heel about having a weakness because we know that it's true isn't it that you can have a weakness and you're only as strong as your weakest points so I wonder what is your weakest point what is your Achilles heel you know everyone has something do you realize that that one thing could be your undoing that that one thing could lead to devastation and destruction in your life well how do you grow past your weak points how do you grow strong in God's grace well we've come to the end of our study of the letter of first Peter this morning I hope you've enjoyed studying through this letter like I have and in verse 12 as Peter is sort of finishing up the letter and giving greetings to various people he tells us that the purpose of writing this letter was so that people would know what the true grace of God is so that they would stand firm in it so how do we stand firm in God's grace and overcome our weak points well Peter gives us three lessons three lessons that we must apply to our lives if we are going to overcome those weak points and grow strong in God's grace so how do we overcome our weak points well the first thing that Peter says is that we need to adopt a posture of spiritual alertness in verse eight Peter begins with two commands he says be sober minded be watchful now the term sober minded was used at this time in a very literal way to mean the opposite of being drunk and here it's being used figuratively to describe being in control of one's thought processes it's used six times in the New Testament this word and twice it's already been used by Peter in this short letter he's used it over in chapter 1 verse 13 where he says that we need to be sober minded and to set our hope fully on the grace to be given us at the revelation of Jesus Christ and in chapter 4 verse 7 he says the end of all things is at hand therefore be self-controlled and sober minded for the sake of your prayers so Peter in this short letter is emphasizing the importance of being sober minded the importance of keeping your thoughts under control you know there should never be a moment when you let your thoughts just wander off there should never be a moment in your life where you let your thoughts wander wherever they might go see you're thinking affects your living as I heard someone once say you saw a thought you reap in action you saw an action you'll reap a habit you saw a habit you'll reap a character you saw your character you'll reap your destiny it's sobering isn't it to think that where you are right today is a result of previous thinking that your thinking affects your living which is why the Apostle Paul another writer of the New Testament says that we need to take every thought captive we need to filter our thoughts through the filter of whether they are honorable pure commendable and excellent you know the other word that Peter uses the word watchful was something that Peter had heard from Jesus himself is he on the night before Jesus was crucified after celebrating Passover with his disciples Jesus brought them to the Garden of Gethsemane and he took with him Peter James and John his inner three to pray with him and to strengthen him as he faced the most difficult moment of his life and then Jesus went off by himself and when he came back what did he find the disciples doing he found them sleeping and Jesus said to Peter Simon which is Peter's other name why are you asleep could you not what's the word watch one hour watch and pray lest you fall into temptation the spirit indeed is willing but the flesh is weak Jesus was saying because of the weakness in our flesh we have to be watchful for temptation because Peter he wasn't he fell asleep when Jesus needed him the most so both of these terms sober minded and watchful have the force of calling us to spiritual alertness we need to take control of our thoughts and we need to be watchful and on our guard for temptation you know it gets really hot in Australia as we know from today and when it gets really hot we have these signs that you will see like this one that warned us of extreme fire danger now obviously when the weather is cold and when it's wet the fire danger is pretty low and so you don't have to be particularly vigilant but when it gets very hot in Australia and the needle rises to extreme you can't even light a small campfire and the CES are on high alert because they know that one small mark could could light a raging inferno well what Peter is saying here is that we need to be on high alert that we need to take control of our thoughts and we need to be watchful on guard for temptation because one wrong thought one unguarded moment could be the spark that leads to devastation and so what you need to do every day if you're going to overcome your weak points is you need to wake up and adopt a posture of spiritual alertness you know I often counsel young men in particular who are struggling with pornography and when I when I do I get them to think about the moments of their day when they need to be on higher spiritual alert because we all know that there are there are certain moments in our day where we are more susceptible to temptation than other moments when we need to be on high spiritual alert when we need to be on guard for temptation you see because if you are going to overcome your weak points you can't be asleep even though your spirit might be willing your flesh is weak you have to be on high spiritual learn you have to watch and pray lest you fall into temptation but the second lesson that Peter teaches us if we are going to overcome our weak points is not only must we adopt a posture of spiritual alertness but we must understand our enemy in the very next breath Peter tells us why we must remain spiritually alert he says because your adversary the devil prowls around like a lion seeking someone to devour so we must be spiritually alert and we must understand our enemy and Peter gives us two things that we need to understand about our enemy the first thing that we need to understand about our enemy is we need to understand the character of our enemy now I know that for some people here today even to talk about a personal devil might seem ridiculous it might seem outdated and a stupid notion but I can I gently suggest a couple of things you know if you struggle to link to believe in a personal devil then would you please consider the fact that you might be the one who's being simplistic you know as Westerners we like to be all sophisticated and nuanced we don't want to be you know unscientific or anything like that but could it be possible that you are not considering the multi-dimensional nature of evil I mean typically nowadays people put down evil to just psychological or physiological or environmental factors so that if we educate people enough we should be able to eradicate evil but certainly hasn't the 20th century convinced us that this is actually a myth in the 20th century we had more education higher standard of living greater technology than ever before but still we see evil raising its ugly head further I think it's pretty culturally narrow isn't it to suggest that all the other cultures of the world many of whom believe in the supernatural you know it's interesting that I was at that time I was act that Australia Day seminar celebration the other day and it was interesting that out of the people who are coming into our nation this is really fascinating you have yeah you have two oaths that you get to say if you when you become Australian citizen one with God in it one without God in it and it's interesting to me that the ones who were swearing allegiance with God in the the oath were by far in the majority to the ones without God there are more people who are coming into our into our nation who believe in God then who do not so it's fascinating so it's really quite culturally narrow to look down on all those people and say that they don't have any wisdom to offer whatsoever further if you're like most Australians you probably believe in God well if you believe in God is it that much of a belief to believe that there could be a devil the opponent of God and further if it is true and it certainly is what the Bible says about the devil then you will not be able to overcome the darkness you that is in your family and that that is in society just by yourself you will need help from outside now when it comes to understanding the character of the devil there are two extremes that need to be avoided we need to avoid the extreme of overestimating the power of the devil you know some Christians are always attributing everything to the devil they get angry and the devil made them do it and I think we have to be careful because we are complex as people there are size of physiological factors that affect our behavior in our past and all those sort of things it's interesting that Richard Baxter who was a Puritan from the 1600s he wrote this amazing track on despondency and it's amazingly complex for someone who wrote many years ago he said if you're struggling with despondency or downcast Ness it could be a result of a number of factors he said it could be your Constitution which means your body you might need sleep and you might need rest it could be that you're lonely in which case you need encouragement and the love of people around you it could be a moral issue that you've done something and guilt is weighing on your conscience but he also says it could be the devil who is oppressing you so we must avoid overestimating the power of the devil because we shouldn't fall into this trap of becoming fearful of the devil but we also need to be careful of under estimating the power of the devil you see Peter describes the devil in a number of ways first he says that he is your adversary he uses the personal possessive pronoun he is your adversary he's not just the adversary of God but he's the adversary of every Christian he uses the word adversary which is a legal term and has the connotation of an enemy who is seriously an aggressively hostile you see the devil is like a legal car illegal a lawyer who questions you and berate you on the witness stand trying to to get you to trip up that's what he's like and then finally he describes him as the devil the Diabolus in greek quite literally the slanderer Warren Wisby writes Satan is a dangerous enemy he has great power and intelligence and a host of demons who assist him in his attacks against God's people he is a formidable enemy we must never joke about him ignore him or underestimate him and I think that many people don't overcome their weak points because they don't realize they have an enemy a formidable opponent who has schemes against them now I don't know if you've ever seen the movie rumble in the jungle but it's a donk documentary about the legendary fight between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier that took place in 1974 in Zaire Africa and in the lead up to the fight Muhammad Ali constantly told the media that he was gonna dance that he was going to dance and Joe Fraser who was bigger and stronger than him would not be able to catch him because he floats like a butterfly and he you know stings like a bee he was going to dance his way around that ring and there was no way that jump and Joe Fraser would be able to get lay a hand on him and so Joe Frazier trained in order to dance around the ring but Joe Frazier had massively underestimated his opponent early the whole time that Ali was saying that he was going to dance he was actually in private training to receive massive blows from his opponent he boxed in private with other boxers just laying into him treating him like a punching bag building up resistance to these blows and so when the day of the fight came instead of dancing around Muhammad Ali just stood still and let Joe Frazier punch into him and then when Joe Frazier ran out of energy he'd knocked him out you see Joe Frazier had misunderstood his enemy don't you misunderstand your enemy he has schemes against you and this is the second thing that we need to understand not only do we need to understand his character but we also need to understand his strategy Peter describes the activity of the devil using an for he says he prowls around like a lion seeking someone to devour get this Peter wouldn't have had the opportunity like you and I have had maybe to see a lion in a zoo or to see a lion on TV the only place where Peter would have seen a lion or maybe heard about a lion was in the Coliseum where these Lions would have ripped Christians to pieces and so Peter is saying that this ferocious that he is like a just predator ready to pounce ready to devalue and Satan has two main strategies that he uses in order to devour Christians the first strategy that he uses is the strategy of temptation he is ever working to tempt you to sin as Thomas Brooks who wrote this amazing book on spiritual warfare if you want a book on spiritual warfare to read I suggest you get Thomas Brooks book it's called precious remedies for Satan's devices it was written in the 1600s and as Thomas Brooks writes he writes this he says Satan's first device to draw the soul into sin is to present the bait and to hide the hook to present the golden cup and hide the poison to present the sweet the pleasure and the profit that may flow in upon the soul by yielding to sin and to hide from the soul the wrath and the misery that will certainly follow the committing of sin isn't that true doesn't that happen to you as he presents this bait and says here take this but behind it is this hook that you don't see and as soon as you're hooked in and as soon as you've son you've sinned you feel the sting and the crushing blow of sin upon your conscience you know Peter himself had experienced this in Luke 22 and verse 31 Jesus had said to Peter he had warned Peter he said to Peter Satan has demanded to have you that he might sift you like wheat but I've prayed for you that your faith might not fail when you've turned strengthen your brothers now of course Peter because he didn't understand his enemy he proudly Ampera Gitlin oh no Lord though all others may deny you I never will I'm willing to go to prison and even death for your sake but Jesus said to him I tell you Peter the raus raus rooster will not crow this day until you deny knowing me three times and that's exactly what happened Peter did not he did not take into consideration who his enemy was and the power of temptation you know it's interesting I think as we look at this particular passage just look down in your Bibles at this particular passage I think that Peter knew the temptation that his readers were going to struggle with was to become anxious and worried in the midst of their suffering the temptation for them was a temptation to believe that because their suffering God doesn't care for them which is why he reminds them in verse 9 that the suffering that they're experiencing is not unique but as being experienced by all the Brotherhood throughout the world and then he gives them this amazing promise that the God of all grace the one who's called them by his own eternal glory will himself comfort and strengthen and establish them but but get this I want you to get this you may need to write this down you see Satan's temptations are tailored to your situation let me say that again Satan's temptations are tailored to your situation we don't all have the same situation he knows that he's going to use different bait with you than he will with me but you need to understand that that is what he's trying to do is he's trying to give you a bait that you will take that you will find appealing so that you will sin against God well the second strategy of the devil is not only does he tempt us but he accuses us he heaps condemnation upon believers reminding them of their past sins he tries to render them ineffective by getting them to wallow in their sins rather than revel in their Savior I don't know how many Christians that I've met whoo-hoo who are stuck who were trapped in this prison of condemnation Terry Virgo in his book lavish grace writes this Satan's chief occupation against the believer the weapon that he uses day and night is the weapon of accusation if you don't know how to overcome his accusations your head will certainly go down you will succumb to feelings of guilt and failure you must stand securely clothed in the breastplate of righteousness Christ unchanging righteousness is yours every day and not in the least dependent on your feelings or your performance you know it's said of John Bunyan the author of pilgrims progress that one day he was experiencing a season of depression and walking and feeling dejected he saw a vision of Jesus Christ in that moment he comprehended that Jesus Christ was his righteousness and he understood in a new way that if he felt bright and robust and happy in God he couldn't in no way add to the righteousness of Christ nor could he if he felt low and dejected take away from the righteousness of Christ suddenly he understood with new certainty and joy that Jesus Christ was his righteousness and he is the same yesterday today and forever a little boy was visiting his pic grandparents and they gave him his first slingshot he practiced in the woods but he could never hit the target and as he came back to Grandma's backyard he spied her prized duck on an impulse he took aim and let fly and the stone hit the duck and the duck fell down dead well the boy panicked desperately he hid the duck in the dog the woodpile only to look up and to see his sister Sally watching Sally had seen everything but she said nothing well after lunch that day grandma said Sally let's wash the dishes but Sally said Johnny told me that he wanted to help in the kitchen today didn't you Johnny and she whispered to him remember the duck so Johnny did the dishes later grandpa asked if the children wanted to go fishing grandma said I'm sorry but I need Sally to help make the supper Sally smiled and said that's all taken care of Johnny wants to do it again she whispered remember the dark Johnny stayed while Sally went fishing well after several days of doing all of Sally's chores finally Johnny couldn't stand it any longer and he confessed to grandma that he had killed her prized duck well she said I know Johnny I was standing at the window I saw the whole thing because I love you I forgave you I was wondering how long you would let Sally make you her slave you know God has already forgiven you and accredited you the righteousness of his son so you don't have to be a slave any longer to condemnation when Satan comes to you and says remember this remember that how can you call yourself a child of God you just have to say look look up to Jesus he is my righteousness he has become my righteousness my wisdom my sanctification from God so if you're going to overcome your weak points and grow strong you need to understand your enemy you don't need to overestimate your enemy but don't underestimate him either you need to understand his strategies understand that he's ever trying to tempt you and then once he's tempted you he will accuse you you know I've seen this cycle of shame take place in many people's lives and in my own life so what happens is that Satan comes and he tempts us to sin we in we give in to the temptation of the enemy and then afterwards he heaps condemnation on us saying why would you do such a thing how could a child of God do such a thing and then in order to try and soothe our guilty conscience he will come again and tempt us with the pleasure of sin and say this this sin here will will soothe your guilty conscience and then we end up giving in and then all of a sudden we filled with more shame and more guilt and if this continues I've found that many Christians become really really numb inside and maybe that's where you are today is your numb inside you would never you will never turn your back on Christ because you want eternal life but you're not experiencing the freedom of the gospel where Christ said if the son sets you free what does he say you shall be free indeed don't judge the level of your spiritual life by your own experience judge it by the cross the Cross has set you free and you can be free well the final lesson that we need to learn if we are going to overcome our weak points is not only must we be spiritually alert and not only must we understand our enemy but thirdly we need to respond in faith when tempted you see contrary to what some people teach the normative way that believers are to respond to the attacks of the enemy is found in verse 9 after he says your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking those whom he may devour Peter says in verse 9 look in your Bibles he says resist him firm in your faith the normative way that we resist the attacks of the enemy is to raise the shield of faith as Paul says that can extinguish all the fiery darts of the enemy or as James says in James 4 verse 7 submit yourself to God resist the devil and he will flee from us you see the way that the enemy tempts us and accuses us is through deception Satan is a liar and he was a liar from the beginning Tim Chester writes this in you can look at this this is really interesting he says sinful acts always have their origin in some form of unbelief behind every sin is a lie at the root of our behavior and our emotions is the heart what it trusts and what it treasures people are given over to sinful desires note this because this is the words of Paul in Romans chapter 1 verse 24 they exchanged the truth of God for a lie every time you fall into sin it's because you believe a lie of the enemy rather than walking by faith in God's Word you know in temptation there are two lies in particular that the devil is seeking to get us to believe and I think you should pick up a pen if you haven't already and you should write these down because you will need this here are the two lies that the enemy is seeking to get us to believe in temptation lie number one he's getting us to believe or tries to get us to believe that sin is inevitable that you've given in before so you should just give in again that sin is inevitable but when you're in that moment when he is lying to you and saying that sin is inevitable you need to realize that God is bigger than my temptation as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10 33 no temptation has seized you except that which is common to man and he is faithful and he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear but when you are tempted he will provide a way of escape so that you can stand up under it sin is not inevitable God is bigger than your temptation Galatians 5 verse 16 says if you walk by the spirit you will what you will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh God is bigger than your temptation but the second lie that he's trying to get you to believe is that sin II is more pleasurable than obeying God that obeying God and the life that God offers is just boring this is what he said to Adam and Eve in the garden he said that God is holding out on you because God knows that the day in which you eat of it you will be like him he lies to us and tells us that that life apart from God is than life under God but by faith even though you don't feel it you need to choose to believe that obedience to God and his ways will lead to the most satisfying and joy filled life so you need to believe that God is not only bigger than my temptation but that God is better than my temptation so when you are tempted you need to respond in faith you need to speak to your soul you don't need your soul to speak to you you need to preach to your soul and this is what you need to preach to your soul God is bigger and better than my temptation why don't we have a go at saying that ready let's all stand up come on set up I know it's a hot day but let's say this come on what is it God is bigger and God is better than my temptation in that moment when you were being tempted what do you need to say and God is better than my temptation sin is not inevitable it's not inevitable and sin is not better than obedience to God I mean you already know that don't you on the other side of temptation after you've felt the hook that's in that temptation you experience bitterness and you experience guilt and you experience misery in your life you can have a seat again so God is bigger and God is better than our temptation so how do we grow past our weak points we grow past our weak points by adopting a posture of spiritual alertness by understanding our enemy and by responding in faith when tempted I wonder this week what is your weak points will you respond in this way will you take this this strategy that I've outlined and apply it to your life will you wake up every day and be spiritually alert knowing that your enemy is on the prowl and understanding that you need to respond in faith by saying God is bigger and better than my temptation I pray that you will this week let me pray for us

Channel: CityReach Oakden Church

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Length: 30min 14sec (1814 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 28 2018