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[0:01] 1 Peter chapter 5, and we'll be reading from verses 5 to 11. This is God's holy word. Young men, in the same way, be submissive to those who are older.

[0:18] ! All of you clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. Amen. Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.

[0:34] Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you. Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.

[0:48] Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings. And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm, and steadfast.

[1:10] To him be the power forever and ever. Amen. Amen. Who can make straight what God has made crooked?

[1:21] That's a question that the preacher in Ecclesiastes 7.13 asks. When he says, consider what God has done.

[1:33] Who can make straight what he has made crooked? It's hard to straighten the nail that's been bent, but it's possible. But here he's talking about our lot in life, our circumstances, all ordered and controlled by God.

[1:51] Amen. And yet not all of them are as straight as we could wish them to be. In God's providence, he's made some things in our lives crooked, bent, and they trouble and afflict us.

[2:08] And try as we might, we cannot straighten them. Do you have some of that in your life? I would be surprised if you didn't, living in this fallen world.

[2:24] Maybe it's your health. Maybe it's your relationships with someone. Maybe it's finances, a job. Things, plans that didn't go the way you wanted them, and they're not things you can fix.

[2:40] So what do you do about those crooked things that you cannot make straight? The Puritan Thomas Boston wrote a whole book on the theme and on that verse, and he called the book, The Crook in the Lot.

[2:54] Now, Boston himself had many crooks in his lot in life. He had a wife who was very sick all their married life. Six of their ten children died before they did.

[3:09] He served a small but very troublesome church. These were things that God had made crooked in his life, and he could not straighten them. And so he speaks as one who's been in that challenging situation, and he tells us that the way to behave under such crooks in your lot is to humble yourself.

[3:33] And he turns us to this very passage in 1 Peter 5 that we had read for us, and the text this morning is verse 5b through 7 that says, God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

[3:52] Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand that he may lift you up, casting all your cares upon him because he cares for you.

[4:05] We have here two major points this morning. First of all, a most difficult duty. Secondly, we're given many encouragements to do it.

[4:16] So, first of all, the difficult duty, humble yourself. You're under a humbling circumstance, under God's mighty hand.

[4:32] He's brought you low. It's a humbling circumstance. Remember last week, James told us in chapter 1 and verse 9, The brother in humble circumstances ought to rejoice in his high position.

[4:48] Think what spirit dwells within you. What a father's smile is thine. What a savior died to win you. Child of heaven, shouldst thou repine? So, the brother in humble circumstances ought to take pride and rejoice in his high position that is his in Christ.

[5:06] But now today, Peter's command for those under humble circumstances, under God's mighty hand, is to match your spirit to your humble circumstance, to humble yourself under God's mighty hand.

[5:23] Don't have a stiff-necked, proud spirit that's upset with God. No, get your spirit low before him. Sweetly submit to his will in all things.

[5:38] Humbly accepting the crooked things, the hard things that God has brought into your life. Yes, even the things that you cannot make straight. Boston spends half of his book on just this.

[5:54] Because nothing is more important in these humbling trials than humbling yourself under God's mighty hand. But it's no easy thing to quietly humble ourselves under the pressure of his mighty hand.

[6:09] It's much easier to sing together, not my will but yours be done when we're here on Sunday morning. But it's another thing when we're face to face with one of those crooked things in our life that is painful to deal with.

[6:23] The reason it's so hard, Boston says, is because of our addictedness to having our own way. That's plain shooting. I've got an addiction.

[6:34] It's an addiction to having things my way. And he likens it to the breaking of a wild horse. A horse that's used to having its own way.

[6:46] A horse going wherever it wants to roam will not find it pleasant to be led by bit and bridle where it does not want to go. That's the challenge before us.

[6:58] Or David in Psalm 131 likens it to the weaning of a child so used to having his mother's milk and the closeness of that bond while nursing and doesn't want to see it end.

[7:10] And to trade the breast for the bottle, that too is something of an addiction to having it our way. And so we see to submit our will to his in humbling circumstances is easier said than done.

[7:29] It will require great self-denial on our part. A real death. A death to die. A death to having it my way. And because this duty is so difficult, we will need gobs of encouragement.

[7:44] We will need lots of help to do this if we are to humble ourselves under God's mighty hand.

[7:56] And that's exactly what we're given in our text. So we have not only a difficult duty, but we also have many encouragements to it. I'm going to give you five helps then this morning for humbling ourselves under God's mighty hand when we're under those low humbling circumstances, those bent things that we cannot make straight.

[8:20] The first help is that God opposes the proud. You see it in verse five, the second half of the verse. God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.

[8:33] Humble yourselves therefore. There's a reason to humble yourself. There's two reasons to humble yourself. Why? Because if you don't, you'll find God as your opponent.

[8:45] God opposes the proud. He stands in the way of the proud. He fights against the proud. Those who refuse to bow submissively to His mighty hand and would instead fight against Him.

[9:01] To fight against the Almighty? How could that end well? That's a losing game. To kick against the rock of ages?

[9:13] That's just to break your foot. And many have had to learn this the hard way. Fighting against God. We have them all throughout the scriptures. There's Goliath. There's Haman.

[9:25] There's King Nebuchadnezzar. There's Satan himself. All fighting against God. God bless you. things that are going to be to do with me. There's a lot of God. But you say, what does God opposing the proud have to do with me in this humbling circumstance?

[9:41] I'm a Christian. Well, what's more proud than thinking I deserve better than this? No, I don't.

[9:51] However low my circumstance, it's not as low as I deserve. Anything out of hell is mercy. He has never treated me as my sins deserve or repaid me according to my iniquity.

[10:05] Never once. Or I be in him. That's where we begin this business of what I deserve. And what's more proud than thinking I know better than God what's best for me?

[10:18] Or what's more proud than demanding my way instead of God's way and actually dictating to God the way it must be? You see, refusing to humbly submit to God's will is arrogant pride and God opposes the proud.

[10:35] Well, I can't afford to have God against me. And if ever I need God to be for me it's when I'm in my humbling circumstances. When I'm going through things that I can't straighten and I'm out of help.

[10:50] I need him then for me in this overwhelming trial. and I need his help not his opposition. I want to avoid that at all costs.

[11:02] Therefore, humble yourself, John, under God's mighty hand. That's help number one. It's got some teeth to it but that's because we need it. The second help to humble ourself is found in the rest of that verse.

[11:19] God gives grace to the humble. He not only opposes the proud but here's number two. He gives grace to the humble just as God has a special aversion to the proud he has a special attraction to the humble.

[11:35] Isaiah 66 2 speaks of this attraction. This is the one to whom I look. This is the one I esteem. I look with favor. He who is humble and contrite and heart and trembles at my word.

[11:48] So God promises to give grace to the humble and that's precisely my need and my humbling circumstance. Grace is supernatural divine energy.

[12:09] Power to hold me up in this trial, to keep me from falling into sin and despair, to enable me to glorify God in this humbling circumstance. That was Paul's greatest need to endure the painful thorn in his flesh.

[12:25] That messenger of Satan sent to torment him and even his praying three times could not make that crooked thing straight, could it? And so God says to him, Paul, you have all you need for this.

[12:40] What is it? My grace, my supernatural divine energy is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.

[12:51] 2 Corinthians 12, 9. Grace is power. And that's what I need in such times as these.

[13:02] We can't handle these humbling, crooked circumstances. They're too much for us. grace. But from his fullness have all we receive and grace upon grace, upon grace, like the waves of the sea crashing upon the shore of our needy lives.

[13:18] There's more grace in him than there can be need in us. And God is able to make all grace to abound to you so that in all things, at all times, having all that you need, you may abound in every good thing.

[13:33] Yes, abound even in humbling yourself under humbling circumstances, under God's mighty hand. What an incentive to humble myself.

[13:45] He gives grace to the humble. A third help to humbling yourself is to remember that your humbling circumstance comes from the mighty hand of God.

[14:03] humble yourself therefore under God's mighty hand. You see, it's God's hand that has ordered up this trial for you.

[14:16] If something crooked in your life, consider what God has done. It's because God's mighty hand has put it there or allowed it to be there.

[14:27] His hand is in it. And you say, what's so encouraging about that? Well, just this that nothing can touch me, but what passes through his mighty hand.

[14:41] No cancer, no bereavement, no loss, no perplexing trial, no darkness, no problems. They don't come by chance and they don't come as Satan slips them by him unapproved.

[14:55] No, they're traced upon our dial by the son of love. Purposefully. Traced upon us by the son of love.

[15:09] Furthermore, God's mighty hand is moved by his all-wise mind and his tender loving heart. And so if his hand is traced it on our dial, we know it's the best thing and it's a loving thing.

[15:23] Spurgeon says, and he had many trials, he said, they would crush me if I did not know that they came from the Lord tailor-made for me. But he looked at me and he says, this is what Charles needs.

[15:35] And he tailor-makes that trial for him. Not to do him harm, but to do him good. So, we need to look past the second causes and get right back to the first cause, that mighty hand of God.

[15:53] We say with Eli when he heard from the boy Samuel of God's judgment, serious judgment that's to fall on his family because he did not rebuke his sons for their sin. He said, it is the Lord.

[16:06] Let him do what seems right in his eyes. All I need to know is it's the Lord. It's the Lord's hand. Then let him do what is right in his eyes.

[16:17] Job was able to look past what? The second causes of the Chaldeans and the Sabean raiding parties that took all of his wealth. to look past the weather, the tornado, the windstorm that killed all ten of his children.

[16:31] He looks past these second causes and traces it back to the first cause and says, the Lord gave and the Lord has taken away.

[16:43] May the name of the Lord be praised. Yes, there's help but getting back to that first cause. David, when he was fleeing from Jerusalem, running for his life because his own son Absalom was conspiring to steal the throne from him and as he's running out of Jerusalem, there along the hillside is this Benjamite called Shimei and he's running right alongside the hillside above David shouting curses at him, slandering him, calling him scoundrel who's getting exactly what he deserves.

[17:23] He's pelting him with rocks and dirt. And David's bodyguard, he's had enough of it and he says, why should this dead dog curse my Lord the king? Let me go over and cut his head off.

[17:36] David said, let him alone. Let him curse for the Lord has told him to. It may be that the Lord will see my distress and repay me with good for the cursing I am receiving today.

[17:51] He looked beyond Shimei and saw the hand of the Lord and reasoned if the Lord wanted to stop him from cursing me, his mighty hand is more than capable of stuffing his mouth.

[18:08] But he hasn't. Therefore, this too has come from the hand of the Lord. It's past his muster. It's tailor-made for me.

[18:21] Brothers and sisters, your trials, your crooked things that you cannot straighten, see them as from the Lord. You can safely drink whatever his almighty hand has put into your cup.

[18:36] Because if you look close enough, you'll see that that hand is a nail-pierced hand that was pierced for you, that hung on the cross for you. As he drank God's cup of wrath to save you, oh, then take whatever cup he puts into your hand, whatever crooked thing that you can't straighten, and recognize it's from him.

[19:02] It's safe to drink it if it comes from his hand. He has loving purposes for your good in every such dark, crooked trial. And he will allow nothing to touch you.

[19:16] Nothing gets by his hand that he will not work for your good. Is that not help in humbling yourself? Under God's mighty hand, it's his nail-pierced hand.

[19:29] So we look and see that this trial has come from God. And fourthly, the fourth help is that God promises to lift you up in due time.

[19:41] Verse 6 says, humble yourselves therefore under God's mighty hand that he might lift you up in due time. You see, it's the same mighty hand that has brought you low that is more than able to lift you up, however low your circumstance.

[20:02] Now, you might not be able to see how this could happen. Indeed, who can straighten that which God has made crooked, but it's well within the capacity of God's mighty hand.

[20:13] This is the hand that holds up the whole world in his hands. He's more than capable to lift you up. And besides, it's his promise.

[20:26] It's his promise that if you humble yourself under his mighty hand, he will lift you up. Not he may lift you. He will lift you up.

[20:37] Be assured of it then. Expect it. Your humbling is not the end, but is the means to the end of being lifted up and exalted.

[20:48] You see, there's more to the story. It doesn't end the way it is now. This is not the way it will always be. So humble yourself.

[21:02] He will lift you up. Now, humbling is yours to do. Lifting you up is God's to do, and he will do it by his mighty hand. Now, this is an oft-repeated promise of our Lord Jesus in the Gospels.

[21:18] The Gospel accounts show us that he said these words at least on three different occasions, and probably many times more because we just have a sampling in the Gospels of Jesus preaching.

[21:32] So, Jesus said these things over and over again. What did he say? The one who humble, everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.

[21:48] Matthew 23, 12, Luke 14, 11, Luke 18, 14. Not maybe, again, there's no ifs, ands, or buts about it. Will be exalted.

[21:59] You humble yourself, he will lift you up. James, the step brother of our Lord Jesus, in chapter 4 and verse 10 says, humble yourself before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

[22:12] Virgin Mary in Luke chapter 1, 52, praises God as she thinks back over history, even back to Hannah, that barren woman that gave birth.

[22:23] And she's thinking of the ways of God, his habits, his nature, the way he works in history, and she identifies this as one of his ways.

[22:37] He lifts up the humble. He exalts the humble. He exalted humble Hannah. He's exalted me, his humble servant.

[22:48] That's one of his ways. Indeed, it was true of our Savior himself. As the Apostle Paul records in Philippians 2, 5 to 11, though he was in very nature God, yet he made himself nothing, of no account.

[23:09] Taking the very nature of a servant, he humbled himself. The Son of Man, the eternal God, the Son, humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, and even the death of the cross, that hellish death.

[23:34] Therefore, God has exalted him to the highest place, and given him a name above every name. You see the pattern.

[23:46] It's seen throughout history, Mary says, God's and it's seen the clearest in Jesus. Never was anyone higher, humbling himself lower, and then lifted up higher.

[24:02] He's seated in the heavenlies with his Father on his right hand. So, brothers and sisters, are you struggling with humbling yourself under God's mighty hand, under that crooked thing that can't be made straight?

[24:18] Maybe it's the result of a past sin, maybe it's nothing to do with your sin, but it's something that's crooked and you can't fix it. You're having trouble with that.

[24:32] There was hell in Jesus' cup, and he drank it that you might never have to drink it. He humbled himself and went to the hellish cross for you.

[24:44] So, this humbling yourself, there's nothing beneath you, not when we see the Lord of glory humbling himself. And we're encouraged to see that the Father has exalted him, just as Jesus promises.

[25:00] And if you in your trial will humble yourself under God's mighty hand, he will no less exalt you and lift you up. You can count on it. Jesus says those who overcome will sit with him on his throne at his Father's right hand.

[25:16] you too will be exalted to rule and reign with Christ forever. So, let your attitude be the same as that which was in Christ Jesus who humbled himself.

[25:31] Is that not a great encouragement? To humble ourselves in our lowly circumstances. But notice God lifts you up in due time. Not your time, but God's time.

[25:42] time. And have we not learned that God's timing is the best time? That we can actually rejoice that our times are in his hands and not ours. So, we must wait.

[25:55] Wait God's timing to lift us up. It may be in this life. I say it may be in this life. It may be something that's so crooked that it will not be made straight in this life.

[26:09] but a day will come when he will lift you up. And all that has been made crooked will be made straight for God's people. Either way, in this life or the next, it will be the best time.

[26:27] Now, waiting is not our strong suit. We're in a hurry, but God isn't. And only God knows and is committed to the very best time to lift us up.

[26:40] I'm prone to chafe under his yoke of affliction and to try to extricate myself before it's accomplished its needful work. I try to lift myself up out of this bent situation and I, if I do, will find an almighty hand heavy upon me.

[27:01] Pressing me down under the mighty hand of God. It's best just to wait quietly for the Lord. Because if I humbly submit to him, he himself will lift me up in due time, the right time.

[27:17] And he knows when that time is, when all of his good purposes in the humble affliction have been accomplished. You don't want to go through one of those times and come out empty, didn't learn anything from, then wait.

[27:35] God will keep you there until he has accomplished those good things that he's promised to do. Job 23.10, he knows the way that I take, and when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold.

[27:52] Job sees him as the purifier, standing over his gold, and remember, child of God, you are his treasured possession. You are gold to him, and he's the purifier, and he's standing over the purifying fire, and he knows just how long to keep it over the fire, not one second longer, and he's got you there, and he knows how hot to make the fire, and not one degree hotter than what is absolutely necessary.

[28:19] When he has brought you through the trial, you'll come forth as gold, gold that's been purified of its dross.

[28:32] So humbling yourself under God's mighty hand means waiting for his timing. It is self-defeating folly to try to rush God's time. If you try to rush the time to pick a peach, you'll see what folly it is.

[28:50] You'll bite into a dry hunk of pulp, and if you'd waited, you'd have had juice of sugar running down your chin.

[29:00] time, why would you lose that for lack of patience to wait the right time, the ripe time? God has a ripe time, a due time.

[29:13] So wait for the Lord. Be strong and take heart while you're waiting under that low circumstance. Take heart. Why? Why? Because he knows and will bring it about in the best time.

[29:31] You're not just waiting for the thing to pass. You're waiting for a person, the Lord. Wait for the Lord. You see, again, go back to the first cause.

[29:41] I'm waiting for the Lord to remove this thing. I'm waiting for the Lord to make this crooked thing straight. And that helps us. I'm not just killing time here, waiting for who knows what.

[29:54] No, I'm waiting for him who loves me and considers me his precious possession. He's worth waiting on. After all, did he not wait for you?

[30:06] Or did you believe the gospel the first time that he called you? Did you come on the first call? Or was it after years of saying, no, thank you.

[30:18] I don't want you. I like my way. And he waited and was ever so patient. And now you sit under his richest blessing.

[30:30] Can you not wait on him to remove that crooked thing in your life? No one waits on God in vain. Abraham waited 25 years, but the son of promise was born.

[30:44] Joseph waited 13 years as a slave and as a prisoner before he was lifted up to the prime minister in Egypt. David waited as long being chased by King Saul before he was exalted as the king of Israel.

[30:57] And so you, severely tried brother and sister, can be assured the day is coming when you too will be lifted up out of that low circumstance. The last chapter has not yet been written and the pen is in God's hand, that almighty hand, and none who wait on him have ever been disappointed.

[31:16] did. Well, that's the fourth help. You shall be lifted up. The last is found in verse 7, and it's the sweetest perhaps of all, casting all your cares on him, for he cares for you.

[31:33] What do you need when you're down here in your humbling circumstance, and you're still waiting, and waiting, and things have not changed? you need to know that God cares for you, and that's what we have as our fifth and last help.

[31:53] You have one to care for you, and therefore for you to cast your cares upon him as you wait, knowing that God cares for you.

[32:04] Is it not amazing that the God who, as David said, when I consider the heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have set in place, what is man that you're mindful of him, that you even think of him, much less that you care for him.

[32:22] I was ministered to by a song this week that said, Jesus cares for you. Seems too good to be true. Yes, it does sometimes, doesn't it?

[32:34] This Jesus who cares and holds the universe in place by his mighty power, cares for you. And he cares about the things that cause me cares and anxieties under my difficult circumstances, however big they be or however small.

[32:57] If it matters to you, it matters to him. If it's a care to you, he says, that's my care as well. What a savior. If we really believe this, would we not cast our burdensome cares on him sooner?

[33:12] How often do we carry these cares around ourselves for so long, replaying our worrisome what-ifs and wrestling with our fearful thoughts?

[33:23] And that becomes its own punishment as these cares rob us of our joy and peace that comes from believing. They weigh us down, they sink our spirits.

[33:34] Not only is our circumstance low, our spirits sink in disappointment and discouragement and depression, even despair. And it's also unnecessary when our God invites us to cast our every care upon him.

[33:49] Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened down with cares, and I'll give you rest. Cast them on me. His mighty hand can handle our heavy burden so much better than we can.

[34:02] Throw it on him, content to leave it in his hands. And the sooner the better. I think I've told you this before, but as you know, in northern Indiana, the rocks have, the frost has a way of pushing the rocks up in the farmer's field every spring.

[34:21] And so the farmer gets his tractor and he pulls the wagon behind, he hires a couple high school boys that don't know any better, and they go behind and they lift up these rocks and they put them on the wagon.

[34:36] Some of those rocks are really heavy, and the sooner you get them on the wagon, the better. How foolish we are sometimes, we like to carry those rocks around.

[34:49] How much easier is life without the burden? Well, we're to cast it onto the Lord. How often do we cast them? Just as often as you have them, care.

[35:03] Cares don't like to be forgotten. They come back around and get in the back door of our minds, don't they? And they don't let you forget about it. Think about me again. What are you going to do about this?

[35:15] What if this happens? And we're still carrying that load around. Throw it back on him. As quickly as it comes, cast your care back upon the Lord.

[35:28] How do you do that? Well, you do it in prayer. You tell it all to Jesus. You tell it to Jesus as though he did not know anything about it.

[35:39] Though you know he knows all about it. But if you're going to cast your care onto him, you need to tell him the whole thing. You need to bare soul to pour out your heart to him. And in the pouring out of your heart to him, you'll feel the shifting of the load.

[35:58] I've told him about it now. So that's where it begins. You spread your fears, you tell him what scares you, you tell him what bothers you, and you do it remembering his promises.

[36:12] Such as verse 7. Cast your cares on him, for he cares for you. Oh, I'm not doing something that's unbiblical. I'm doing what you've told me to do, Lord, and here's this care.

[36:24] Have it. I can't bear it. So you tell it to him, and then you further unburden your soul by transferring the load from you to him. You get it out of your hands.

[36:36] Here, Lord, take this. I can't handle it, but you can, and you said you would. And so it's a committing it to him, isn't it? It's trusting it to him.

[36:50] Trusting his wisdom, power, and love. And then you just leave it with him, believing he cares more about it than you do yourself. He's just that good.

[37:01] Happily resigned then to his will in the matter. I told you the story from J. Adams before, but I think it bears repeating.

[37:12] Wally had a problem with worry, always weighed down with cares. You could see it on his face. Everybody called him worrywart Wally. His friend Bob hadn't seen him in a while and when he saw him next he couldn't help but notice a huge change had come over him.

[37:29] Wally, you're not worried like you usually are. What happened? Well, I hired someone to do all my worrying for me. You did what? Well, I hired a guy to do all my worrying for me.

[37:43] Well, that's different. What's that cost you? $500 an hour. Where in the world are you going to get that kind of money? I don't know, but that's not my worry, it's his.

[37:57] Now, it's a silly story, but I can't think of anything that better gets in our minds the transfer of the care from one to another.

[38:11] And remember the silly story if that helps you. The next time you have a worrisome anxiety that just doesn't want to spin out of your head. You've got someone hired, if you will, to worry for you, to care for you instead of you, and you're going around carrying your own burden?

[38:38] He doesn't charge you anything. He's willing to care. He cares for you, and so he commands you. He invites you. Cast your care over here, John.

[38:49] Give it to me. I'll handle it. And so the transfer must go to him. He would say to us, what are you doing with that load?

[39:03] That's my job now, you know. You mean he doesn't need my help a little bit? No. No, as a matter of fact, you're carrying the load, instead of casting it on him, shows that you think you can do a better job than he can.

[39:22] We're back to that pride issue, aren't we? I can't trust him with this issue. No, I've got to carry this around myself. I've got to figure this one out. Why are you so afraid to let it go, to let him take your problem?

[39:37] You know he cares for you ever so much more than you could ever care for yourself. Remember the cross. That's the one high point of his care for you that you should never get out of your mind.

[39:53] And again, when you're carrying those anxieties, go back to the foot of the middle cross at Calvary. Because there he not only took your cares, he took your sins.

[40:06] And there was a transfer from you to him. And now he hangs there, bearing your burden of sin. And he's tempted to come down from the cross and save himself.

[40:19] And he refuses because he wants to save you instead of himself. Can you not trust him with your little care now?

[40:32] He took care of your biggest problem. Get back to that cross and see his care for you. And that should help you and encourage you to cast your care upon him.

[40:44] What a friend we have in Jesus. All our sins and griefs to bear. What a privilege to carry everything to him in prayer. What else was Jesus doing on the cross?

[40:57] Well, he was purchasing you for God. As 1 Corinthians 6 reminds us, you're not your own anymore, you see. You don't belong to you. He's bought you with a price, namely his own blood.

[41:11] And you say, what's so encouraging about that? Well, the Heidelberg Catechism says that's the greatest comfort we have in life and in death, is to know that body and soul in life and in death, I belong not to myself, but to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ.

[41:27] Why is that such an encouragement? Because if I belong to me, who has to worry about me? Me. Nobody's taking care of me.

[41:38] If I belong to me, who has to care for me? I do. Oh, but if I belong to Him, He takes care of His stuff, and I'm one of His.

[41:50] That's our great comfort in life. There on the cross, He purchased us, so I'm not mine, I'm His. So I need to start acting like it when I have a worry and say, oh, yes, Lord, this is your business, isn't it?

[42:02] This isn't mine. Here, take this care. And He rejoices to do so. Kids, listen for just a moment. This isn't just for adults. You know, children have worries and fears as well.

[42:17] You need a Savior too, to save you from your fears and your worries. And Jesus is just as willing to take your cares as He is the oldest person here this morning.

[42:30] He's more willing to carry them than you are to have Him carry them. So these humbling circumstances in life that Peter's talking about, they're full of things to worry about.

[42:44] But we can more easily humble ourselves under His mighty hand when we're casting our cares, our worries and fears upon Him because we know, we know He cares for us.

[42:56] Some of you are carrying a different kind of burden. You're carrying the burden of sin. sin is the heaviest burden of all. You've got to stand before a holy God and give an account for your life. If there's any sin that has not been washed by the blood of Jesus, it is hell to pay for your sin.

[43:13] That's something to worry about. That's something to have anxiety. That's something to keep you awake at night, sweating in your bed. I am one breath away from that judgment seat and it will be me in Him.

[43:26] What did you do with my son? What did you do with the gospel? What did you do with the command to repent right now? What did you do with the command to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ?

[43:38] Oh, I said tomorrow. Yes, you did. And now here you are. Here you are. Oh, but why? When you have one to carry that load of sin and He is willing to take all of your sins and to bear them on the cross instead of you.

[43:57] Put your faith in Christ. He is a willing and an able Savior. May these considerations help you who are lost to come to Christ and so to know your sins forgiven, the load off of your back, that guilt that you carry and then to know that God is for you in every crooked thing in your life and He's promised His grace to you and He's promised He's going to lift you up someday.

[44:25] And until He does, He cares for you. So cast that care on Him. Let's pray. Lord, to read the Bible is to know that You know us and You know not only what we do, but You see what goes on in our heads.

[44:45] And the way that we think about our trials, the way we think about You in our trials, the way that we worry and are anxious, and we see, Lord, that these things are not pleasing to You.

[45:01] This isn't the way You want us to live. Forgive us of our sin, our unbelief, and help us. We do acknowledge our weakness. We want to be a glory to You, even as we go through these trials and humbling circumstances.

[45:19] So help us, we pray. And thank You for Jesus who humbled Himself that we might be exalted one day. Bring others today to Him, we pray in Jesus' name.

[45:31]  Amen. Amen.