Final Responsibilities

And right up to the end of chapter 4 We've been looking at preparing for suffering Okay well now this is Peter's goodbye if you will Closing out the letter

And going off somewhere else to college Well you know in your mind's eye you're thinking I want to go back through and make sure you know You know how to find your dorm And how you have your key at night You know don't go spending things You're going to be on your own And people are going to try and lead you astray And watch out for those things And all those things you want to go through But you don't have time to go through 18, 20 years You know previous you just got to say goodbye And that's the way Peter is with this Just a quick hitting on the final responsibilities That we need to remember as believers in Jesus Christ And so he says therefore He's coming to a conclusion Of all the things that he said

And primarily the things that he's been talking about As far as suffering is concerned Back in verse 19 of chapter 4 he says Therefore those also who suffer According to the will of God Shall entrust their souls To a faithful creator In doing what is right Therefore So applying and assuming that we're doing that Entrusting who we are to God God's our creator He's our sustainer He knows what's necessary And so every day we do that Now I pray that you do I pray when you get up in the morning Before you start your day You spend some time with God It's called devotion It's not a course It's not something you're going to be graded on here by a teacher It's not something you'll get stars for from me If you have devotions

It's something that is absolutely necessary To maintain your sanity To keep your focus In the world in which we live today And as you get up and you start off by Acknowledging that you are entrusting yourself You have entrusted yourself You're entrusting yourself today To the creator God Who is able to sustain you He's the faithful creator And he's able to keep us going In doing the things that are right It's amazing how the rest of your day will go It's when we forget that And things are going to happen Things are going to happen That aren't according to your schedule That can tend to freak you out And boy have we had a week of that at our house Those of you that are on the list server Have been keeping up with us And praying for us

And your faithful prayers have kept us From just flying apart It's just been amazing The things that have gone on One of the things I didn't send through Two things Yeah I did send one of them through One of the things We've been so hectic And been away We just got back from conference And then trying to get things Caught up at the house And thank you to those of you I sent it through on the list server But those that aren't on the list server I don't know how many of you got together And did so many clean up things around our place But it was just awesome To come home and see all of that Thank you for that But in the same token Because it's been raining so much Our lawn hasn't been able to be cut So I got out there bright and early on Friday

And in the midst of running around Things we were doing I jumped on the rider And started cutting the front lawn And I thought I can at least get the front lawn cut And maybe get the back one Even the first of next week Because I knew rains were coming Holland and Lisa were gone They were up One of their many trips this week To the VA hospital And one of their cars Was kind of parked off the driveway On the grass And I wanted to Just kind of move it out of the way So I could mow underneath it Because stuff had really grown up But I couldn't find their keys So I thought Well I'll just mow around it That's no problem And just come whipping around And then when they get back I can have them move it And I can mow underneath it

And I just made the first pass Around the car, their Explorer And I came down to the corner And I went to turn And at the end of our driveway It's gravel And I caught a rock Man, and I shot that sucker Right through their passenger Right rear window of their passenger I mean the explosion was louder Than my mower was running So it just popped It just went Boom! Now I didn't have that on my list For the day, you know I didn't even have it On my list at all But it was one of those things Where had I not Had I not had devotions That morning I would have said God, what are you doing to me? What are you doing? I'm trying, I'm trying so hard I'm trying to do good I'm trying to do right But I just did a little bit of that And then I remembered His promises

And that morning I'd read Psalm 46 And that was okay God is a refuge And a strength A very present help In time of need

Now just follow me with this one And by the way If you want an outline If you're an outline kind of person The title of the study is Final Responsibilities And I've broken this down Marvelously in a wonderful outline That God gave to me Through Warren Wiersbe It's just a three point outline The first four verses And it's the B If you know Warren Wiersbe He does the B You know, B-E Be faithful, be kind Be diligent, whatever And so this is Be faithful, verses one through four Secondly, verses five through seven Be humble And thirdly Verses eight through the end of the chapter Eight through fourteen is Be watchful So be faithful, first of all An exhortation from Peter for us To be faithful And he's exhorting the elders Presbyterus

We get the word presbytery from it And there are different words For elders and leaders In Ephesians And 1 Timothy as well But it's either like Episkopos Or Presbyterus Diakonos are the deacons But elders and shepherds And leaders are either Presbyterus or Episkopos And here it's Presbyterus Which is the leaders of the church So he's exhorting the leaders Of the church among them Those to whom he's writing Now, this is going This is a circular letter So it was going to the church at large So it's directed to us as well Where we live In our day and age So the elders among us Those that are the leaders of the church As your fellow elder And witness Of the sufferings of Christ And a partaker also Of the glory that is to be revealed So Peter's saying

I've seen the sufferings of Christ I know the glory that's coming And I'm a partaker of that And so are you So we're together in that And then he says Shepherd the flock of God among you Exercising oversight Shepherd the flock of God Hmm Sound familiar? Remember, this is Peter Where have you heard that before From Peter To Peter From Jesus John 21 Yeah Peter do you love me? Agape Peter do you agape me? Do you love me without condition Beyond anything you can imagine With every part of your being?

Yes Lord I phileo you I love you like a brother Feed my sheep Peter do you love me? Do you agape me? Do you love me beyond condition Without restraint With every part of your being Yes Lord You know all things You know that I phileo you You're my brother Love you like a brother Attend my lambs And then the third time Jesus said Peter do you phileo me? Do you love me like a brother really?

Jesus came down He condescended down to Peter's level Of the relationship And Peter was discouraged He was disturbed That the Lord asked him again The third time Did he love him? And he said again Yes Lord you know all things You know that I really do phileo you I love you like a brother And Jesus said again Feed my sheep So this is This is Mr. Do you love me? Three times Feed ten Feed my sheep Telling us By experience now After a couple decades After the resurrection Understanding what Jesus had meant Telling us As leaders Yes As the elders of the church To shepherd The word Literally means in the Greek To tend the flock Not just Not just to Lord it over And he talks about that in the rest of the verse But But to tend the flock

To take care of the flock To know their need And provide their feed And know what Is necessary to treat them When they have the diseases And to get their wool off At the proper time So they don't overheat And make sure they don't become cast On their back and all And to That's what the tending is That's the word that's used there Tend Tend Shepherd The flock of God among you Exercising oversight Not under compulsion Not because you have to Sadly There are those of us who In our labor Whatever it is Tomorrow is Monday And you Have to Go To work Have to Don't want to But I have to Why in the world do you Have to Well I gotta make a living Yeah Where's God in all of that I know God says he's gonna provide for my need

But he's not just gonna hand it to me I have to go work Do you realize Work Is not Part of the curse Adam and Eve weren't in a split level condo On the beach You know, naming the animals Those things Hey Eve, yeah like Glenn was saying This is a flamingo What do you think of that What do you think of that name Eve Pretty cool, huh Pretty You know, bring me another margarita We're just gonna sit here Watch the animals that I've named walk by No God put Adam in the garden And had him tend the garden Taking care of it Whatever that was There were no thorns yet No weeds So I'm not sure what that was That he had to do But he had to tend the garden And take care of the animals Whatever that involved He was working It was after the fall

That God cursed the ground And from the sweat of your brow You will labor in the ground And it's gonna bring forth Thistles and thorns All the days of your life The thistles and the thorns Are the result of the curse But work was a gift by God To us Now it's all perspective It's all in how you see what you do Now, he's talking to the elders Well, okay, let me read down And then I'll come back Because this is what I keep saying Exercising oversight Not under compulsion But voluntary according to The will of God Why? Not for sordid gain But with eagerness Why? Not yet as lording it over Those allotted to your charge But proving to be what? Examples to the flock What's an example?

Something for somebody to follow It means pattern The word means a pattern Be a pattern for those of the flock So that's what elders are to be Is a pattern Paul says it, Peter says it Whatever you see me do, do it Whatever you've seen and heard

Not just family, but people around you You guys that are working Wherever you work Whether you're a lead man Or a boss or a vice president Or simply a sheep Bah, where you are A worker, a laborer People are watching how you work Your attitude towards your job And it shouldn't be With constraint or compulsion I have to be here But voluntarily I want to be here Any of you guys see the movie The Rookie with Dennis Quaid? The pitcher? The guy, it's a Disney movie It's family rated I can recommend that one No problem You can get it It's great to watch The Rookie And he's a pitcher He was on his way To be a major league pitcher Had a shoulder injury He was out of the race And ended up being a biology teacher And a coach At a high school in nowhere, Texas

And ended up coaching a team That was nothing Over the last several years Their greatest record was 1-13 And he, through all of that It was the Lord that was working in him With the kids that he was coaching And they challenged him As he challenged them That if they won the district For him to go try out Again, at his age 40 some years old To try out Long story short He does try out And he makes it on a minor league team But it's, you know At his age And he has three kids And he only makes $600 a month And he's touring Traveling away from home It got to the point Where he was looking at it like A drag What am I doing? And he called his wife And told her he was coming home And she told him This is what he dreamed of This is what he longed for

And it's a wonderful story Leading up to all of that So you've got to get the movie And look at it If you've never seen it And anyhow He's sitting there And he's debating what to do And he's sitting in a bar And the interview comes on He's been interviewed by ABC Charlie Gibson interviews him It's real, real story It's a true story Based on a real event And he hears himself telling That how proud his son was of him When this was going down And that he was doing as much For his son As he was doing for himself And it just He realized Somebody was watching him Who cared a great deal about him And this wasn't just for him This wasn't just something That he was doing Just for himself now It was something he was doing To lead somebody else along

In the right path And so the next day He comes back in And he walks into one of his teammates Who started with him Who's about 20 years younger than him And he walks in And he's in the locker room And Brooks is the other guy And he's starting to get ready And Dennis Quaid walks in And he goes Brooks, guess what we get to do today And he looks up at him And he says what And he says We get to play baseball It's not we have to It's we get to What do you do every day You have to go do it Not with compulsion But voluntary According to the will of God Not for sordid gain Not just because you get paid But with eagerness Imagine how your condition Of your job would change during the day If each of us would do that Guess what I get to do today

I get to go whatever And work Because I tell you what In an instant Illness or accident Could take you out of that And you're not there anymore But today You have an opportunity to do that And all of us today Guess what we get to do We get to go wherever we are As missionaries for Jesus Christ As witnesses for the Lord We get to do that The job is secondary Hear me on that People hear me Your job is not primary It's secondary The primary thing for you Is to be Jesus to those you're around To let them see his glory To do what you do Heartily as unto the Lord Not unto men That you glorify your Father Who is in heaven By what you do And as elders Leaders of the flock That's what Peter is telling us to do As examples to the flock

So that we get to do that We get to lead by example And you see the example of your leaders Who are excited About today Barring circumstances Barring chucking rocks Through the window of your car The next day No I guess it was Thursday I did that Because that was on Thursday Because the next day Friday We're getting cleaned up in the morning Getting ready And all of a sudden I hear Boom And I look at Ann We're both in the bathroom And I'm going oh no I know what that is I go running downstairs And my main line had popped loose And water was just spraying all over the back wall You've known me Water problems Is how God speaks to me He really does It's how God tests me And whatever you're doing

The things that you are around And so the things that happen are not by chance Or by coincidence or by accident They are by design And I'm talking about ALS I'm talking about automobile accidents I'm talking about whatever It's been by design That through that particular occurrence God will draw you closer to himself And he will speak to your heart In a way that you haven't heard Maybe before And he will use you then Through that to bring glory to his name

So you get to do whatever You have been allowed You've been given the privilege to do this So do it without anxiety Voluntarily And as leaders we do what we do Because we love you guys We love working with the Lord We love the stuff that God's doing With Agape Fruits, with the concert With different other ministry things that are going on We're just going, wow Keep us out of the way We're just excited And God's raising up more of you to do those things Some of you that haven't maybe done something here Or done something here for a while God's providing opportunity And we're just going, wow Lord, wow We're excited with eagerness Verse 3 The word there in the Greek means domineering Not domineering But proving to be Examples to the flock Proving to be

Examples To the flock Hold your finger here Go back with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 4 Those of you that were here hopefully remember that Wednesday night, we're in 1 Corinthians, we did 3 and 4 It's just amazing When you're in the word like this and you're going through it You see the things, you see how Gloriously it ties together And all the people who say, well it has It has conflict And it doesn't all jive together The only reason they're saying that is because they've never read it They've never actually taken time to study it They've just heard that it It has conflict It doesn't all go together Something goes against something over here It's just because they've never read it Go back to verse 16 1 Corinthians chapter 4 Paul writing Mimic me

Follow me Do what I do And now you have Peter saying That's how we're to be Not assorted gain for eagerness yet And not lording it over But proving to be examples to the flock Follow me The people will look to you And they will know When their Pipes Pop I've seen you go through that How did you go through that? You go, well, you know I don't know, it's just the Lord It's just God Because I'm not a plumber or a mechanic But God works and God Fixes and God moves through the midst of that How do you go through what you're going through right now? It's the grace of God It's just the Lord You're examples, you are an example to the flock In the same sense that your kids Just like that poem said Go through the different circumstances you're going through

I have seen my dad go Do things so much that I'll come to a certain point and I can Picture just as though it were today Him doing that same thing Handling that with the attitude My dad was a man of just So much grace And nothing seemed to upset him Nothing, those of you that knew him He just had those beautiful blue eyes And he just He was just so loving and so kind And so wanting to help others And something had happened and he was just always so positive Well that's okay, it's going to work out, we'll be alright And I can just see my dad And I'm imitating that, I'm following that And that's what you and I are to those around us We're examples To the flock And so much so that Verse four When the chief shepherd appears

You will receive the unfading crown Of glory The unfading Crown of glory Now, is that just to leaders? I don't think so Is that just to church leaders? I think it's going to be To those who lead Who realize they are leading What's the church? Do you have to be in the four walls of the building To be a leader in the church? Or the function outside of the building

Is that the church function? Absolutely So what's a leader in the church? It's a leader of the church It's a leader of the body It's whatever group of the body you're involved With the oversight of With the leading Be faithful Be faithful to just be those glorious examples Now, he goes on To be humble Well, you younger Verse five Likewise, you younger men Likewise, be subject to your elders And all of you Humble yourselves With humility Toward one another For God is opposed to the proud But gives grace to the humble Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God That He may exalt you At the proper time Casting all your anxiety or your cares on Him Because He cares for you Okay, you younger men Why does he direct that to younger men?

You younger men Likewise Likewise What does that mean? It means in the same way As I've just talked about Elders, I've talked to elders Leaders in the church To lead by example Eagerly, voluntarily Not by constraint Not complaining Not lording it over So you younger men Likewise, in the same way Your examples Uh

When I was Middle school I think it hit about junior We called it junior high When I was growing up Seventh, eighth and ninth grade All together When I hit that age And started going to junior high Is the time that I realized My folks were stupid They didn't know about the long hair The Beatles, they thought it was bad They didn't like the rock and roll music They thought it was bad So parents didn't know anything In the sixties and seventies Was a main break away from parental authority And a break away from authority In general Um Since the establishing of our nation On biblical principles You were to honor father and mother And although there were some areas and issues I can go back through history and have little pocket areas The prohibition time

In the early 1900s The speakeasies during the roaring twenties That was a push against authority That was a push against biblical authority But it was pocket There were pockets of it In major cities There was still the moon shining and all And the drinking here and there But it wasn't until the sixties That seemed to explode through a generation Through the youth culture That exploded To push against authority Burning draft cards, burning bras Streaking You know all this Everything that went against authority Exploded during that time It wasn't anything new It's the tendency of the young To think that those who are older Really don't have it together They really don't understand me They don't know who I am Or what I'm going through

I'm expressing myself Among my other peers and all And so There's just this area of It's naturally inborn in youth And young men are leaders Where that's concerned More so than younger women Pushing against authority So an exhortation to younger men To be humble Be subject to your elders Why? Because it's tremendous What is really an awesome example To the culture Is indeed young people But young men Who are respectful Who are Righteous, who are committed To goodness and righteousness Who hold the doors open Who say yes sir and yes ma'am Man that is Wow It's not seen that much It should be, especially in the church In the body of Christ

That's the example that's set before us That's what Peter is referencing here When he says Clothe yourselves with humility Put on the servant's apron towards one another How humble are we How do I measure my humbleness Level What do you like What do you demand Do you demand your rights Demand to have things your way Or are you constantly looking to serve somebody else To serve others To serve others That's what we are to clothe ourselves with Is humility Because God Because God is opposed to the proud Literally sets his face against the proud But gives grace to the humble Now if there's one thing you do not want Is the face of God set against you You don't want God opposing you And if you're proud And proud in the sense of Rebelling against authority

Proud in the sense of Wanting your own way Proud in the sense of Resisting the righteousness of God If you're proud in that It's not human authority you're resisting It's not mom and dad you're resisting It is the face of God And let me tell you God himself told Moses No man can see my face and what Live You did He'd take you out He will I think that's what the prayer In 1st John Chapter 5 is all about Sin unto death A prayer For those that are sinning unto death I say that you should not pray for that There is a sin that is unto death I think that is a believer who is sinning In the face of God And doesn't care He knows he shouldn't do that He is a believer claims to be a Christian And he has blatantly turned the other way

And is going after his own thing There is a sin that is unto death God will take you out You're out of the pool You probably will go to heaven if indeed you're saved But if you're saved And doing that It doesn't show that you're really saved Because the fruits of righteousness are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness Goodness Long-suffering self-control And another centeredness So you're showing that selfishness And rebellious nature God is going to take you out He'll break your legs first probably And then he'll take you out There is a sin that is unto death So Don't resist God The face of God Be humble towards one another Therefore verse 6 Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God That he may exalt you in the proper time

Let me ask you a question How do you picture that in your mind Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God You should have a word picture There should be a picture in your mind When we talk about different things of theology Do you have one? What do you picture? Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God What do you picture? Do you picture an arm of God out here And you know he's And you're coming to your knees Because the hand of God is over you Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God That he may exalt you in the proper time That he may exalt you In due time And all this goes together With the understanding of what that means I'm going to give you a word picture for that in just a second Because God showed me this one

I didn't get this out of a commentary and it's really cool Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God That he may exalt you at the proper time And it goes right with it Casting all your care, your anxiety on him Because he cares for you I want you to picture this from now on How to humble yourself Under the hand of God Under the mighty hand of God Because Jesus gave us the perfect illustration for that In the prodigal son And you and I are The prodigal And what did he do When he in the pigsty Came to himself He said Even my father's servants Fair better than this I will go to my father And I will beg him To take me on as just one of his servants And he comes Down the road And what he sees is his father Running towards him And he goes

He doesn't even get to say it But it's his heart that's willing to humble himself Before his father And what happens His father throws his arms around him And hugs him Under the mighty hand Of his father He has humbled himself So don't see God's hand is out like this Under the mighty hand of God But when you humble yourself before the Lord You're broken before God You are saying God I don't know Lord I just love you and trust you Give me the wisdom And you're humbling yourself under his mighty hand And he's holding you And then what did the father of the prodigal do Put rings on his fingers And sandals on his feet Kill the fatted calf He exalted his son And there's the picture Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God That he may exalt you

In due time Casting all your cares upon him That's what the prodigal did Father I don't deserve anything Let me just be a servant in your stable That's something we're to do On a regular basis If we're being faithful With the leadership role that God has given to us As part of the body of Christ Then that's going to take a daily dose Of humbling yourselves Things are going to go wrong And how you react The words that you say when those things go wrong What words do you say I tell you I did not say God goes flying through that window Glory I went I repent Lord I repent

Daily humbling Because he cares for you Then be sober about that In your area of humility Now be watchful Now realize that these things are progressive You're being faithful To be the leader that God wants us to be As just a believer in Jesus Christ To be an example to others We humble ourselves before his mighty hand Just to be embraced by that mighty hand So that he lifts us up So now be sober Be of sober spirit And be on the alert Just be ready Just be ready Why? Because your adversary Diablo You know what Diablo means? Yeah it means the devil You know what the word literally means? Slanderer The slanderer prowls around Like a roaring lion Seeking somebody to devour Okay What's he doing then?

How is he roaring like a lion? And I know all the illustrations of it It's a lion that roars It's a toothless lion that roars Female lions The male lion roars And it drives the game one way And the female lions kill it and drag it back to the male And all that stuff I know all those illustrations of the lion But the name means slanderer So what's the enemy going to be doing to you? Slandering you Before others You have an idea Of how you appear to others And it's usually not how you really appear to others Because they'll see you In different ways because of things they've heard About you You tell people you're from Calvary Chapel You're going to hear a lot of things Oh I've heard about them They swing from the rafters Or they do all these

Kind of sordid things You're going to be slandered In whatever you do Maybe in your family You're the sheep that didn't Didn't make it Didn't make the big time Whatever And even your own extended family Runs you down That's slandering The devil Looks like a roaring lion Like a slanderer Seeking who he may desire Devour If we're worrying so much about us Rather than the things of the Lord And doing what God's called us to do And all fearful of what this is looking like Or whatever That we won't be effective for God anymore So Peter says he's doing that He's going to slander you but resist him Firm in your faith Firm in the fact that you know you belong to the Lord All these things back here Verse 19 of chapter 4 That according to the will of God

I'll entrust their souls to a faithful creator In doing what is right God's got it I know in whom I have believed And I'm convinced and persuaded That he's able to keep what I've entrusted to him Until that day You know the promises of God Stand firm in your faith Knowing that the same experiences of suffering The things that you're going through Are being accomplished by your brethren Who are in the world And I thought I wonder how many other guys have done that today God bless you man I'm praying for you Doing something like that today They're suffering like you They're going through the same things that you're going through And after you have suffered Verse 10 for a little while The God of all grace who called you to his eternal glory in Christ

Will himself perfect Confirm, strengthen, and establish you Now those are words that are used elsewhere in scripture That we are to be allowing the spirit to do In our lives right now But these are completed Peter's saying that's coming The fullness of those things Confirmed as the absolute son Child of God strengthened in his glorious Might and established The end of that we will stand before the Lord And see him face to face And Peter says to him be dominion Forever and ever amen So be watchful As the enemy is coming to devour you To slander you to get your focus off the Lord And the things of the Lord be watchful Continue to be faithful Continue to be humble as God's doing that Now Peter closes out there really Verse 12 he says Through Silvanus

Our faithful brother so I regard him Silvanus has actually been his He's been his secretary writing this down I have written to you briefly Exhorting and testifying that this is The true grace of God Stand firm in it She who is at Babylon chosen together with you Sends you her greetings As so does my son Mark Or John Mark Greet one another with a kiss of love Peace be to you all who are in Christ You read commentaries on Who the church of Babylon is And I lean towards the one That he's using a code name for the church at Rome He's in Rome He is soon to be executed He will be martyred here before long John Mark is with him Silas is with him They're in Rome that's where they were In other writings we know that's where they were Not in Mesopotamia

Not in the city of Babylon Way across in the Middle East But in Rome itself And he's encouraging, he's in the midst of Nero's domain In the midst of Babylon In the midst of that area of spiritual Degradation And he's writing saying hey I'm in the middle of it But there's a church here as well And she sends you her greetings Stand fast, we are Stand fast, church of China Sends greetings to us, stand fast We are under persecution

Well that's from the Middle Eastern That's from the Eastern greeting The kiss on the cheeks, and you'll see the Ambassadors from the Eastern countries and all Do that with one another The Arab countries and all, it's a kiss of love And With the holy kiss, that means that It's not just a faint muah, muah It's my brother Greet one another As a brother and sister in Christ With the love that I've Written to you about As you're growing strong in these last days Waiting for Jesus to come, and may His peace be to you all who Are in Christ. Father We know that the coming of Your son is so near, but you have Called us to be about your business And to be about your business you want us to Be faithful, to be examples, to

Realize the blessing of what we get to do Wherever we are, in your Name, and you want us to Be humble as we go about it Trusting you and resting under your mighty hand Your mighty embrace That you'll exalt us in due time, you'll lift us up And we want to be watchful For the enemy who wants to slander us And get our focus off of you And onto us, we resist Him, in our Faith, in our trust in you And walk on Lord, for your glory In Jesus name, amen Let's stand Okay, so there's no goodies Today, right? No goodies Since it's Mother's Day