A Daily Walk

John Randall: Resisting the devil in our daily walk. Next, I'm going to submit to God. "Lord, this is what you've allowed to come into my life for some reason. I don't understand. These believers were suffering. I don't understand, but you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to submit to you. I know that you're good. I know that you love me. It would be easy for me to doubt, easy for me to just not be self-controlled or not be watchful, but I'm going to resist the temptation to go that direction, and I'm going to submit to you, and I'm going to resist the devil."

The promise is this: he will flee from you. He'll flee. The devil comes knocking at your door, just say, "Jesus, it's for you," and he'll answer it. Resist the devil.

Guest (Male): Well, whether it's due to a health issue, financial crisis, problems at work or at home, we all have cares, concerns, and we may even worry at times. So how do we rightly handle these cares or anxieties in life? Peter would tell us, cast them upon God. That's the encouragement in front of us today on A Daily Walk. Pastor John Randall is about to finish up his study of 1st Peter. Maybe you're troubled and worried about something right now. Allow the Lord and His word to encourage you as only He can.

John Randall: The second thing he encourages them is to cast aside their anxiety. That is the second thing: cast aside anxiety. In verse seven, "casting all your cares upon him, for he cares for you." With the suffering and the discouragement of the believers, the temptation is to become anxious, to become worried, to become overwhelmed, to have... the word is "care" here. It means to be drawn in, divided in every direction. That's what worry does. It takes you in every direction and you can't get your bearings when you're leaning upon your own understanding. It's easy to be overcome with worry.

But here the Lord gives us the solution. He says you're supposed to cast your care upon the Lord. And it literally means to deposit with a direct once-and-for-all committal to God all that would concern you. To quite literally just roll it over onto the Lord, just give it over to the Lord. Perhaps you came in here today burdened by cares that are overwhelming to you, and the Lord knows what those are. What are you supposed to do with that? Well, it says here were to cast those cares over to the Lord.

Our tendency is to say, "Lord, take this from me. Thank you, Lord." And then immediately we take it back right after that. Like we just gave it over, but I've got to take it because it might be too heavy for you. Listen, cast your cares on the Lord. He's the great burden bearer. Jesus, in his Sermon on the Mount, wrote to his disciples and he did make a point concerning worry and care in the sixth chapter of that Sermon on the Mount, and he listed several reasons why they weren't to worry. It's not going to add any growth to your stature. It's not going to change anything.

He said look at the birds of the air. They're not toiling, they're not fretting, and yet your Father cares for them. Look at the lilies of the field. They're beautiful, and yet God clothes them, but they're not worried. They're not anxious. So why are you worrying? He reasons from the lesser to the greater. If the birds aren't worrying, why are you worrying if you're the height of God's creation? At the very end of that section in chapter six, verse 34, Jesus said, "Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble."

There are people sitting in here today that are already worried about Monday morning and God's saying stop that. Stop worrying about that. I'm going to be... I'm here today, I'm also going to be there tomorrow. So give it over to me. Cast it over on him. The Apostle Paul wrote to the Philippians from a prison cell reminding his readers to rejoice, and he gave them a cure for care when he said, "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God."

And he went on to say, "The peace of God, which surpasses understanding, will guard your heart and mind through Christ Jesus our Lord." If don't be anxious about it, but rather pray about it. Give it over to the Lord and just be thankful and just let him let him take it. Jesus, did you know Jesus invites us this morning to bring our burdens to him? He invites us to cast our cares upon him. It says in Matthew chapter 11, Jesus said, "Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

Jesus said bring it to me. Cast your cares upon me. Why is it that I can have confidence in casting my cares upon the Lord? Please do not miss this. It says very clearly: because he cares for you. If you only knew this morning how much the Lord genuinely loves and cares for you, you wouldn't be anxious. As a parent, do you want your children to be anxious? Of course not. And oftentimes our kids don't know the depth of the love that we have for them, and so they might get a little fearful.

But you love them and you reassure them. Listen, you don't have to worry about that. Dad's got that. Mom's going to take care of it. Don't... hey, come on now. Let's not worry about it. So it's casting your cares upon the Lord. It was George Mueller, great man of faith, who said, "The beginning of anxiety is the end of faith, and the beginning of true faith is the end of anxiety." Charles Spurgeon also commented on this, and he said, "Anxiety doesn't empty tomorrow of its sorrows, but it only empties today of its strength."

Cast your cares on the Lord today, friend, if you came in here. You know you can leave a lot lighter than when you came in today if you'll just say, "God take this." And by the way, you can't control it. You can try, but it's out of your control. Give it over to the Lord. Clothed with humility, casting off anxiety. The third thing that the text presents, listen carefully: cautious of our adversary. Notice in verse eight. He says, "Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour."

Now I'm sure you're aware of this, but there is a real devil and he's opposed to Jesus. Not as strong as Jesus. Never think that the devil is as strong as Jesus and they're just battling it out, you know, and you know you just got to... no, he's a created being. He's a defeated foe. Jesus took him out at the cross, but he still is active. He still is wanting to destroy all that the Lord has done. He's behind the world system of today. He's the god of this world. He blinds the eyes of people. He's called the dragon, the deceiver, the snake.

I mean all of these things, he's evil. And the interesting thing that Peter points out, and I think he knew this by experience because at one point Jesus came to Peter during the ministry and said, "Peter, Satan has desired to sift you like wheat. But I've prayed for you that your faith would not fail, and when you've come back, restore your brethren." The Lord warned Peter in advance, "Hey, Peter, Satan's after you. He wants to wipe you out." And Peter knowing the deceptive, undetected tactics of the devil said it's kind of like a lion.

Did you know the devil... he doesn't care if you're in your 20s or your 30s or your 40s or whenever, he'll take you out whenever. You can get to the end of your race, man, you're 80-something and you're like, "I see the tape. I'm going to get there." And he loved to trip you up right before you hit the tape just to ruin all those faithful years. If he could do it, he would love to. So we have to be aware, and we need to be cautious of our adversary.

It was Paul that wrote to the Corinthians in Second Corinthians chapter 2:11, and he said this, "Lest Satan should take advantage of us, for we are not ignorant of his devices." Some people are just ignorant of the enemy's devices. Like, he's deceptive. He always has been. And as I said, he goes about like a roaring lion. Like yesterday, as I was preparing for this, for some reason my mind flashed back to a moment when I was on the savanna of South Africa and I saw something and I just wanted to show it to you. I don't know why. I've never done this before, but that's me and that's a lion.

You've got to be aware. I know he's so cute. He would rip my face off if given the opportunity. Okay, you could take the picture down. But you realize like... hey, listen, that was the picture that came into my mind yesterday, a roaring lion. I was like, "Oh, that reminds me of..." Thankfully he had already eaten, so he was just resting. They fed them before we got there. But the point is, lions run fast in short bursts, and they need to be close to their prey before they can start the attack, and they take advantage of factors like reduced visibility, and a lot of their attacks happen when you least expect it.

Like 98 feet or less away from you. That's how close they get. Sometimes we think, "Oh, I'll just... I can just let this in. It's not that big of a deal. Oh, it's not that big of a compromise." Suddenly I'm 98 feet away and the devil's like, "Gotcha." That's what the devil does. He goes about like a roaring lion. I've often used this illustration as well: he's kind of like a fisherman in that he uses bait. And what is the point of bait? Is it to feed the fish? I don't think so. It's to ensnare them, and he even makes shiny things in the water look like something you could... it looks edible.

But I guarantee you, if you fish at all, you know that that's... there's a point for this, and that is to catch the fish and to kill it, to eat it, to frame it on your wall. When we fished in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, I remember... I'll never forget it. I have shared it with you before, but it's vivid in my mind. Obviously I've had to go to counseling. I haven't. But I was telling you what happened was we were out there on the, you know, fishing and my dad was seasick, he's throwing up, but I was fishing. I was in it to win it, and I was in the chair strapped in there and I caught this huge dorado.

I mean it was huge to me. I was in eighth grade. What are you going to do? It was as big as my body. And so, and when the thing got closer and closer and closer, I'll never forget when that fish got right there to the boat that the man, the big captain, took the gaff, put it in that fish, yanked him into the boat, took out a baseball bat and whacked that fish right on the bone of his head, and blood just splattered all over me. Like what just happened right now? I mean just he killed it. He killed it. That's the whole goal.

That's the devil wants to do, man. Just come on... and you know you make the fish think he's running. Look at him, look at him, he's running. Just wait. You know you just set... you wait it out. You wait it out. Some of you are on the hook and you think you're running. The devil's got his hook, he's just tiring you out. Come on, man, so that he can take that baseball bat and crush your skull with it. That's his intention. "Oh," watch out, he says. How do we be cautious of our adversary? Couple things to consider, and Peter tells us in the text.

First of all, be sober. Sober. The word is self-controlled. Of course, we think of sober in terms of sobriety of mind, not being under the influence, which I think is also extremely important because it dulls your senses. But he's talking about being self-controlled. It denotes a condition free from every form of mental and spiritual loss of self-control and self-discipline. When you are suffering, there is the tendency to just kind of just give up on self-discipline. You know, what's the point? I'm just going to give in. I'm just going to watch this or smoke that or whatever.

You just, "I deserve it. I'm suffering. I'm hurting." So somehow, in some twisted way, the enemy has lied to us to think that, "You know what, you do this is going to make you feel better, too. So just go ahead. And you know, God understands. You're... you know, you've been hurt. You've just suffered loss. So just go ahead and lose all self-discipline, just give into your flesh and go after it." And what happens? Destruction happens. Here Peter says listen when the enemy comes in, listen and you're suffering or you're going through a trial, you're going through hardship, be aware.

The Lord is going to lead you out, but the enemy is going to kind of try to come and take advantage of you in those moments of weakness. In our weakness he loves to come in when we're feeling weak physically, mentally, spiritually, going through a hardship, maybe you've suffered a loss of a loved one. He loves to come in in those moments, in the weakest moments, and try to just take advantage of us. So here Peter says listen, be sober, be self-controlled, be aware of your surroundings, cautious of your enemy.

But he also reminds us the second thing why it's important is to be... he uses the word vigilant. And the word vigilant, and this might apply to some of you today, right now, the word vigilant means to stay awake. I mean some of you, really, seriously. Please tap your husband or your wife. Don't fall asleep. Again, I think that Peter is recalling to mind what happened to him. Remember what happened to him in the garden? Jesus said, "The spirit is willing, Peter, the flesh is weak. Watch and pray." And what happened? He went to sleep more than once.

And he woke up from sleep and just started swinging his sword and cutting people's ears off and then denied the Lord three times. We need to be vigilant. We need to be aware, be alert to the winds of temptation. Listen, something comes there and you think, "I can handle that." Oh, watch out. The Bible says, "Can a man take fire into his stomach or into his bosom and not be burned?" The answer to that question is no, he can't. But there's this deceptive thing that the enemy would love to sow that you can... you can handle it.

No, no, be vigilant, be watchful. No, I'm not... no, I don't want anything to do with that. I'm going to stay self-controlled, I'm going to stay vigilant, especially right now in light of the attacks. What are you to do? Well, not only be vigilant and to be self-controlled, but Peter also adds to this when it comes to being cautious of our adversary. Look at what he says: as we do this, he goes about like a roaring lion. Verse nine: "Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world."

That's the first thing. Listen, you're sober, you're vigilant, but here's what you do on the offensive: you resist it. You fight it. The easiest thing to do is to give in. Anybody can do that. That doesn't take nothing. Anybody can just roll over and just quit and give in and just... and somehow justify... don't do that. Resist it. Fight it. And there's power of the spirit to resist it if we will do that. In fact, James says it this way in James chapter 4:7, a good cross-reference. He says, "Submit therefore to God."

That's where it starts. Submitted to God. Next, resist the devil and he'll flee from you. I'm going to submit to God. "Lord, this is what you've allowed to come into my life for some reason. I don't understand. These believers were suffering. I don't understand, but you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to submit to you. I know that you're good. I know that you love me. It would be easy for me to doubt, easy for me to just not be self-controlled or not be watchful, but I'm going to resist the temptation to go that direction, and I'm going to submit to you, and I'm going to resist the devil."

The promise is this: he will flee from you. He'll flee. The devil comes knocking at your door, just say, "Jesus, it's for you," and he'll answer it. Resist the devil. How? Steadfastly. It means to be steadfastly resisting. It reminds us of the military word that talks about being heavily armed military formed in ranks, close and deep, steadfast, armored up. The Bible says take up the whole armor of God that we may be able to withstand against the devil, and having done all to stand, we are able to stand.

And we stand firm in our faith, that is the Christians to stand firm against the onslaughts of the adversary. Not in ourselves, but in exercise of a faith that depends upon the strengthening and the power of God. It's not my strength, it's God's strength in me. Not trusting in myself, but trusting in my savior. And then he also adds: remember the brotherhood. That is men and women on the frontline of the battle. If you go down, then there's others that will also go down.

And therefore we have to be vigilant, remembering... remembering your brothers and sisters that struggle with the same thing. You're not the only person who's ever encountered what you're encountering right now. The devil would love for you to believe that, your own flesh would love to tell you that you're the only person. You're really... we're not. And I have to remember that I'm not alone and there's other brothers and sisters that are going through it also.

So here's what I tend to do, and I would encourage you to do this as well: when you encounter, whether it be temptation, whether it be trial, whether it be hardship, and the temptation is to become very introspective and self-focused, start to intercede on behalf of five other people. Just names of people you know start praying. If you don't have anybody to pray for, add me to your list, I'd love that. You know, just pray for other people. "God, strengthen so-and-so right now. God, just I know their family, just Lord, would you just work in their..." whatever.

You know, just start doing that, and you go on the offensive because you know you're not alone in this battle. There's other people just like you, and we all have to stand, we all have to fight. You're standing for your family. Hey dads, you know you're standing in purity and godliness because you got kids that are going to follow your example and they're going to walk right behind you, and I want them to walk the straight and narrow. Moms, same thing. Grandparents, same things. Young people, you know, you're setting the temple for the trajectory of the rest of your life.

So how are you going to do it? Are you going to do it steadfast? Are you going to...? Because listen, you go down, other people go down around you. No, we're fighting this thing together. And so I'm remembering that. I'm not alone in this battle. It's so good to have people that you're accountable to, that can pray for you, intercede for you. The final thing that I would say in light of the standing fast in the season of suffering, in addition to being clothed with humility and casting our anxiety and cautious of the adversary, it's confidence in a coming victory.

Look at what it says in verse 10: "But may the God of all grace, who called us to his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you've suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you. To him be glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen." Peter now reminds these battered believers that there is a victory that they can be confident in, this glory that they will get to share in throughout all of eternity, and he reminds them of how gracious God has been to them.

He says, "May the God of all grace..." Please make note of that because when you're suffering or you're hurting, it's easy to forget about how gracious God has been to you. "How could I deserve... how come I deserve this? How could this happen to me?" Do you really want what you deserve? I don't want what I deserve. I know what I deserve. I deserve hell, and so do you. However, God is so loving and God is so gracious that he gives to us what we do not deserve: unmerited, unearned favor.

He is the God of all grace. So if you're hurting today, the Lord said to Paul, "Paul, listen, my grace is sufficient for you, and in your weakness I'm going to be made strong." I mean there's grace enough. Grace is what saved us. Grace is what sustains us, what keeps us going. The grace of God. So remind yourself of that: he has been gracious to us. He's the God of all grace. The Bible says that he ministered with grace and truth, and that of his fullness we have all received grace upon grace.

But not only has he been gracious to us, but listen to this: he's also called us. He's called us. He's called us, notice you saw it, with "an eternal called us to his eternal glory by Christ Jesus." You have a calling on your life, Christian, a calling. He's been gracious to us, we have a calling, and this is what I want us to understand. This part, this part about the suffering, that's part of the calling. That's part, that's part of it. That's part of the Christian life.

It doesn't last forever, but it's part of it. And one day suffering's going to give way to glory, but until then we live in a fallen world, fallen bodies, fallen place. It's just bound to happen, but we have a calling. We've been called to this. So you're gracious to us, you've called us, and then he says this, "After you have suffered a while." How long is a while anyway? You ever wondered that? In the context of... now you say a while, you mean like a little time, or like some of you have been going through it a long time.

You battle things that are chronic and have been with you as long as you can remember. You don't remember a day where you didn't wake up with pain, and I feel for you and pray for you. "After you've suffered a while." Whatever the "while" is, it's short in comparison to eternity, which is forever. A little bit of pain now for eternity in glory. And after we've suffered a while, we've gone through what we've gone through, there's several things that take place.

First of all, he says he's going to perfect you, which means he's going to mature you. How is one matured in their walk with the Lord? I'll tell you: through the difficult things you go through, through the challenging thing. A depth of character spiritually comes through the hard yards. Not only perfect us, but establish us, which means to stabilize us so that we can withstand, we can be immovable, and strengthen us and settle us.

These terms all talk about what God wants for believers as they face the spiritual battle. One final passage that by way of cross-reference in Romans 8, verse 18. This is what Paul said concerning the sufferings of this present life. He said, "I consider the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us." If you're going to do a comparison, they really not in the same category because what awaits us in eternity will never compare to the hardship or the tragedy or the suffering here, which is temporary.

Guest (Male): That is Pastor John Randall on A Daily Walk, and with that we've completed our journey through First Peter. You can listen to our recent programs on our website at adailywalk.org or at oneplace.com. Look for us wherever you get your podcasts too. And I should also mention our free mobile app. Do a search for Calvary South OC.

Jesus chose twelve ordinary men to be his disciples: fishermen, tax collectors, political zealots, and the master shaped these disciples for greatness. He wants to do the same with you and me. In his book, *Twelve Ordinary Men*, John MacArthur draws helpful principles from Christ's careful, hands-on training of the original disciples, applying it to today's modern disciple. That's you and me. You can get this special book today at adailywalk.org for the cost of twelve dollars. We can also take your request if you call us at 877-242-0828.

And thank you for your prayerful and financial support of A Daily Walk. It really is having an impact. With your help, we're able to reach people all across the country with the truths of Christ at a time when they really need to hear it. If you'd like to donate to the ministry, please go to adailywalk.org or call 877-242-0828.

And we're very grateful to the Lord when we hear back from our listeners. Write to Pastor John today by email at adailywalk@gmail.com. He loves to read listener letters and emails. Let him know what's going on in your life and how we can pray for you at adailywalk@gmail.com. Maybe you're one of our new listeners. Let us know what you think of A Daily Walk when you write to us at adailywalk@gmail.com.

And now that we're done with First Peter, we'll turn a page to Second Peter next time. We hope you'll join us for this new series from John Randall. It all starts next time on A Daily Walk. Remember friend, cast all your cares on the Lord, for he cares for you.

This program is brought to you by Calvary South OC and made possible through your generous support.