Looking After the Suffering

Transcript

GR 1953
05/15/2016
Looking After the Suffering
I Peter 5:10, 11
Gil Rugh

We are going to I Peter chapter 5. We are getting to the closing verses of this letter, Peter’s 1st letter. We appreciate Peter, his ministry, what is recorded about him, his openness, his failures and stumbles but his faithfulness. Here he is writing this letter, a man who will subsequently, we don’t have a record in Scripture but tradition says he was martyred along with most of the other original followers of Christ.

He started this letter and he is going to finish it in a similar way. You come back to chapter 1 and in verse 3 he said: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope.” And that living hope assures us, verse 4: “Obtaining an inheritance which is imperishable, undefiled, will not fade away, it is reserved in heaven for you,” he writes his writers. And then he proceeds in verse 5 to say: “It is sure and guaranteed because we are protected by the power of God through our faith in Him and His provision for us for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”

So we were born again to that living hope and that living hope includes the inheritance He has prepared for us in glory and then His divine protection assures that nothing will keep us from realizing entering into that inheritance and all the glory that God has prepared for those who love Him. That immediately moved him into verses 6 and 7 to talk about their immediate situation which is that of suffering and trials. Verse 6: “In this you greatly rejoice” in the settled assurance of the promises of God and His protecting power. “In this you greatly rejoice even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials.” And this is just the refining of your faith, the purifying like gold to prepare us for what God has planned for us.

When we come to the end of the letter picking up with these closing verse he is going to really bring us back to that original emphasis and theme. He has mentioned the suffering. He is going to talk about the glory and work of God in firmly planting us and His ongoing grace which is His provision to see us safely through the trials of this life.

In verse 8 he talked about the devil and we have already talked about that. That was the first time he mentioned the devil in this letter even though obviously the devil is the spiritual entity and power behind the troubles and trials working with the sinful desires of fallen people to oppose God and His people you have the work of the devil and we just need to be alert. He is a fearsome enemy and opponent but we have a God who protects and cares for us. That doesn’t mean that we can be careless and we noted some of those matters and God’s plan as we move down through verse 9, we are to “resist the devil” and are encouraged to know other believers are suffering also. So we ought not to think that this is some strange thing or we are being singled out but “the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world,” particularly fellow Jewish believers but it would be true as we look around the world. We live in a world as we have noted that is in opposition to God and God’s people so there is the constant struggle of one kind and another.

But God’s plan and intention, verse 10 “After you have suffering 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. To Him be the dominion forever and ever.”

So the full confidence of what he said at the beginning of the letter is true as he has walked us through the letter and some of the trials he has talked about. We want to conclude with a reminder and again the way he puts it, “After you have suffering for a little while these things will take place.” And the word order is a little different than what we have in our English Bible. They sometimes rearrange the sentences in their order to flow a little maybe they see better but the word order is here literally, it starts out with what we have after “You have suffering a little while,” the first line in the Greek text as Peter wrote it was, it has a conjunction, “but the God of all grace who called you to His eternal glory in Christ Jesus after you have suffered for a little while.” So he draws attention first to God, His work, His grace, His sovereign call that brought us to His salvation and that includes that call to eternal glory. Then he puts the suffering in there. As we often talk about we keep our focus first on God and what He has promised to those who love Him and that keeps the suffering no matter how intense it might become, what particular form it might take, it is kept in its proper perspective. Nothing will alter or frustrate God’s plan for us as His children.

So in that we can have settled confidence, sure joy. Not that the trials aren’t painful but the joy is knowing this is the hand of God working His purposes for me to bring me to the glory that He has promised.

So let’s talk about it in the order that Peter wrote. First, “The God of all grace” focusing on God, His character, He is the source and giver of grace. Grace, that unmerited favor, that sufficiency He supplies for us to live as He would have us live in every situation. Remember Paul’s trials and suffering, the thorn in the flesh that he had from Satan and he came to appreciate what when God told him, “My grace is sufficient for you?” “I won’t remove the trial, I won’t remove the thorn (but the assurance), My grace is sufficient for you for power is perfected in weakness.” So with that Paul can say, “Now I can rejoice in the suffering. I have been reminded again of God’s grace and reminded by that grace that this is His purpose and He is working it in my life.”

So God’s grace covers every area of our lives, all of our needs. He talked about this grace in giving spiritual gifts back in chapter 4, verse 10: “As each one has received a gift” and we noted at the root of the word gift is the word ‘grace,’ it is a grace gift. “Employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.” And God bestows His grace upon us so that we might as the recipients enabled by His grace function in such a way that we will be a help and encouragement in part of the building up of other believers even as we go through trials, not always at the same time, not always of the same kind but it is God’s grace.

We come back to chapter 1 of I Peter and you note what he says at the end of verse 2, his prayer and desire for them, “May grace and peace be yours in the fullest measure.” Now they have experienced God’s saving grace when they placed their faith in Christ. He mentioned that in verse 3 which we read that God caused us to be born again but he wants that grace to be an ongoing provision. “Grace and peace by yours in the fullest measure,” that sustaining grace, that enabling grace that is God’s provision for us to endure and go through trials, go through suffering, go through difficulty and not be overwhelmed by it, not to be crushed by it. It doesn’t mean He takes all the pain out of it. It wouldn’t be a trial if that was the case but He assures us that His grace is His provision for us.

Down in verse 13 if you are still in chapter 1: “Therefore prepare your minds for action.” Gird your minds for action. In our thinking we have to have prepared ourselves in the way we think, disciplined thinking, prepared for action. “Keep sober. Fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” So you see that pervading emphasis on God’s grace and the culmination of His outpouring of grace for us. Be absorbed in your mind with thinking of the grace that will be brought to us at the revelation of Jesus Christ. What will that grace be? That will be that transforming grace that brings these physical bodies into conformity with the body of His glory. A reminder that the sufferings of this present time, what he said in verse 6 of chapter 1: “Even though now for a little while if necessary you have been distressed by various trials.” And that context keeps your mind disciplined and focused on the fullness of the grace that will be brought to you when Jesus Christ brings us into the glory of His presence. Then we will be transformed. All suffering, all trials will be over. God’s purpose of using them in our lives will be complete. We have all eternity then to enjoy the presence of God and the fullness of His glorifying grace.

So everything is put into perspective and that is a strengthening enablement for us just like it was for Paul when he was reminded by God of the sufficiency of His grace even in a trial which seemed so great for the Apostle Paul.

You come back to chapter 5, “The God of all grace who called you to His eternal glory in Christ.” That call of God, He called you. What we refer to as the effectual call of God. It is the call that is always effective. In other words when God calls you will answer. It always results in salvation. It is used a little differently in the Gospels. We read a verse in our earlier study today, “Many are called, few are chosen.” There that word ‘call’ is used in the Gospels in a general sense of an invitation to everyone, contrasted with the electing choice of God but in the epistle it is always used in the context of God’s electing work, choosing; that call that goes to the elect can result in drawing them to salvation in Christ; the God who called you.

Come back to chapter 1 of I Peter and we read verse 13 and you come to verse 15: “But like the holy One who called you be holy yourselves in all your behavior.” God called us with the intention we be like Him. We can’t become deity because one of the unchangeable attributes of deity is eternality and we had a beginning. We will have no ending by His grace but He called us to be like Him in His character. He is a holy God, separated and set apart from sin. We are to be a holy people, separated and set apart from sin as Peter writes in the 2nd letter: “We have become partakers of the divine nature” so that the character of God is to be manifest and produced in us. That is a result of His call. He called us.

Chapter 2, verse 9: “But you are a chosen race.” Remember this is addressed to Jewish believers. They are a chosen race because God had called the Jews and they become the elect remnant, those who have believed in Christ so they do represent the nation and the remnant in the nation that is experiencing God’s salvation. “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.” And that is true for all of us as believers. The last part of that, we have all been called out of darkness into His light, His marvelous light. That call is a transforming call that brings us to salvation.

Back up to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. We are not going to trace down all the uses of ‘call’ but look at 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, verse 13: “We should always give thanks to God for you, brethren, beloved by the Lord because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation accomplished through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth;” the work of the Spirit in setting us apart and our faith in the truth. “It was for this He called you.” There is our word again. “Through our Gospel that you may gain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.” You note the connection here and the focus, the call from the beginning with the result of God choosing us was to glory and us gaining the glory as he says of our Lord Jesus Christ. What an awesome work that God has done in calling us to Himself.

That call includes the successful completion of God’s plan for those that He calls. This stress that he began and now He’s reminding them it becomes important because sometimes when the trials and difficulties and pressures come if we haven’t disciplined our minds in keeping them focused where they should be, we begin to become unsettled like something is wrong. I can’t see any good in this and it seems God has abandoned me and I don’t think I am going to make it.

I remind myself, Lord, You know I am overwhelmed. Some of what we have been studying in some of the Psalms and it seems that you can come to that point but what sustains you through it is God is not overwhelmed and His call when He called me to salvation in Christ was a call as we come back to chapter 5, verse 10: “Who called you to His eternal glory in Christ Jesus.” He has called us to the glory that is His eternal glory so I can’t fail to be there. We just have a taste of the glory in the salvation we have experienced and we don’t minimize that in any way but that is just a taste. Paul says the difference in the glory we are going to experience is like a kernel, we are in I Corinthians 15, that is planted and you get this beautiful plant that comes out of it. We are just a kernel but we know something of the glory, the blessings that God has brought to us in salvation making us new within but this is just a taste of what God has planned for us. He has called us to His, His eternal glory. There is nothing more glorious than that. That we throughout eternity should share in the glory of His presence.

Back in chapter 1, verse 7: “So that the proof of your faith (these are our trials and tests) more precious than gold which is perishable even though tested by fire and may result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” Praise, glory, honor to revelation of Jesus Christ. The best is yet before us.

Chapter 4, verse 13: “To the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ keep on rejoicing.” You note, not after the suffering but to the degree you share the sufferings of Christ, suffering because of our identification with Christ. “Keep on rejoicing so that at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exaltation.” You know when you suffer because of your identification with Christ it is a blessing. Why, because the Spirit of glory in God rests upon you. It is a blessing for us as the children of God, the followers of Christ who have committed to take up our cross and follow Him, to be identified with Him in suffering and the Spirit of glory. That is just a reminder, we are privileged to be treated with the rejection that our Savior was. And that is just a reminder that the Spirit of glory, that Spirit will bring about that ultimate transformation; important for us to realize.

We see the world around us descending more and more into its vile rebellion against God. That will result in more and more opposition to believers because of their stand for truth. Serious matters. It could become more intense for you in your responsibility. We live in this world. The more the world becomes open and more overt in its opposition to us the more difficult it may become. We don’t know how difficult it may become before the Lord comes to remove the church before the worst of times but the world becomes more open in its opposition to anything Biblical and to the people who would promote it.

In one of our states, I was just reviewing an article I had put in my desk at home. It was in October, 2014, in one of our cities where they summoned the messages of all that the preachers had preached touching on subjects that are currently in the news. That went to court and I believe that was withdrawn but you see where they want to go. We are reminded that we are committed. That is why we gird our minds for action because we are committed to follow Christ and be faithful to Him. That is not conditional on how open the world is to allow us that freedom. The more they close in and try to shut down that freedom the more suffering might become. It might end up closing certain opportunities for work. You can hold your religious convictions but and it’s ‘the but.’

So a reminder that He has called us to His eternal glory in Christ. So nothing is going to frustrate that. You know what? God is in charge. You know you watch what is going on, you read what is happening, you watch the news and you say, “I can’t believe it. Is this really happening?” By the same token we are disappointed but we are not surprised are we? Well in one sense surprised that it really comes to this, this quickly but in other sense the world is just manifesting its condition, hearts which “are deceitful and desperate wicked above all things,” and how important it is that they hear the truth.

Come back to Romans 8 and look at a very familiar passage we come to often in verse 28: “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called.” There we are, “Those who are called according to His purpose.” And “We love God because He first loved us.” And in that love of grace He called us to the salvation in Christ. We are “called according to His purpose.” And what is His purpose for us? “Those whom He foreknew He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son so that we would be the firstborn among many brethren. Those whom He predestined He also called. Those whom He called He also justified. Those He justified He also glorified. What shall we say to these things? If God is for us who is against us.” You will note the last part of verse 30, “Those that He justified He also glorified.” It is a done deal. He can write about this as a past thing because God’s plan for us that He has called to salvation in His Son includes our glorification.

So that is in the context where what do we say, “If God is for us, who is against us?” So no matter how open and overt the opposition of the world may become, God’s plan for us cannot be frustrated. That is our confidence. That is our assurance. It is not that we will never suffer. It’s not that we will never go through trials and difficulties. It is none of those things that can alter God’s plan and then that beautiful section beginning with verse 34: “For who is the one who condemns, Christ Jesus, He who died and was raised is at the right hand of God who intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ, tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, perils, sword?” And that is consistent with what we have in one of the Psalms as He quotes. Verse 34: “In all these things we overwhelming conquer through Him who loved us.” “So I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities or things present or things to come, nor powers, height, depth, any other created thing.”

Remember Colossians 1, angels are created beings as well so the forces of the devil and the demons, “nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” So we are a people safe, secure.

While you are in Romans 8, verse 18: “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is revealed to us.” And the whole creation is moving toward that because ultimately when all is said and done we are going to rule and reign with Christ in a world, on an earth that the curse has been removed, lifted and then we will see something of the potential there for the display of the glory that God intended at the beginning.

Now all of this is what reinforces us, you know, like so many areas it is important. We talk about these things when we are not in them so that we can be prepared for them when they come. One of the discouraging things is sometimes we study the Scripture and we are not in that kind of situation then that kind of situation comes and all of a sudden we are all over the place. We are to fix our hearts and minds on the truth of Scripture so that we are prepared for what is coming, what may come. We are not “blindsided.” We are ready. Now well, I don’t know what is coming tomorrow. I don’t need to know that. I need to know my heart and mind are girded and prepared for action and commitment to follow Jesus Christ and not be shaken by what man may do to me. That is where we are to be as a church. It is easy to talk about it now then trouble comes and all of a sudden, oh, what is happening? I never expected this. Well wait a minute. What did we spend all of this time studying the Scripture for? These truths, they grip our heart in a more real way, in a more pertinent way, if I can say it that way when we are in the midst of the tribulation. Now we talk about tribulation as you know something we could go through. It is different if we get arrested for our faith or you get fired from your job because you cannot promote that which you believe is contrary to the Word of God or things like that but we are not living our lives expecting the support of the world in our commitment and following Jesus Christ.

Come back to I Peter. In verse 10 as he goes on: “He called you to His eternal glory in Christ.” That is the emphasis here. You know, it is “In Christ” that all of this takes place and when we by God’s grace, His sovereign choice, His call, we placed our faith in Christ. “If any man be in Christ he is a new creation,” new creature, “Old things have passed away, new things have come.” He called us to His eternal glory in Christ and we are those who are in Christ. We abide in Him, He abides in us. That is all that we have in Him.

And then we go on, verse 10. Now we have what we have as the first sentence. You see how the Spirit has directed Peter to put the emphasis. First he talks about the “God of all grace who called you to His eternal glory in Christ. After you have suffered for a little while” I am not saying it is wrong to put it there as we rearrange translations going from one language to another but you see the attention that the Spirit directs Peter to give to this and verse 10 began with that conjunction ‘but.’ We don’t have it recorded, “But the God of all grace who called you” in contrast with verse 9, you resist the devil, “you know the experiences of suffering are being accomplished in your brethren but the God of all grace who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered for a little while.” Again the reminder, the suffering is for a little while. We saw that when we read in chapter 1 of Peter, verse 6: “Even though for a little while you have been distressed by various trials.”

I had an article I clipped out from a history text of a woman several hundred years ago in prison for 37 years in a dungeon. They kept offering her freedom if she would renounce Christ. No, no, no. Is that a little while? This is my life but it is not. This is just a little while in my eternal life. So this will pass. You think now two or three hundred years later, I forget the exact date of the article she is regretting saying, “Boy, that was a long time.” You know what? In another 500 million years that little time is getting to be a smaller portion of it, isn’t it. It is easy for me to see it in someone else; so a reminder here. “After you have suffered for a little while.”

Come back to 2 Corinthians which we studied recently and I am sure it is just fresh in your mind, 2 Corinthians, chapter 4. We looked in Romans chapter 8. Paul made a similar expression. In 2 Corinthians chapter 4 we will pick up with verse 16: “Therefore, we do not lose heart though our outer man is decaying our inner man is being renewed day by day.” We saw when we studied when you get over to chapter 11 and Paul lays out some of the things that he has gone through in his suffering. Imagine the condition his body is in and he sees the deterioration taking place. So we don’t lose heart. “The outer man is decaying,” it is going down “but the inner man is getting renewed day by day.” We should be growing and are growing more mature, stronger, spiritually for note this, “Momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal” in contrast to momentary weight in contrast to light affliction, “a weight of glory” far beyond all comparison. There is no comparing the momentary light affliction with the eternal weight of glory. There is no comparison.

Now the key which Peter is saying. When we gird our mind for action, a similar thing with a different analogy. “While we look not at the things which are seen but the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal. The things which are not seen are eternal.” We have our eyes fixed on the glory, the eternal glory. You know it is when the pressure comes in and all of a sudden my eyes drop down and I look at the circumstances, the situation. Perhaps as Paul talked about, my body is breaking down. How much more of this can it take? Well it doesn’t matter. I’ve got my eyes set on what is not seen and that is an eternal weight of glory. The discouraging thing for us are the things that we look around at, that we are going through now that we can see that is happening to us and the pain and suffering and trial and difficulty it brings but we don’t live our lives focused on what we see. So he went on to talk about what we anticipate in chapter 5 and what God has prepared for us and verse 8, that well known verse. Verse 7: “We walk by faith, not by sight.” We are encouraged. “I say rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.” That doesn’t mean we want to die a painful death. I hope I preach my last sermon and have a heart attack. No suffering, no difficulty and no wasted energy because I got the last sermon out. We all would like to have “an easy death.”

My dad had a heart attack cutting the lawn one time in New Jersey. They brought him back with the shocks to the chest and everything. “I just opened my eyes and I was in the hospital. I never knew was happened.” He said, “When I die that is the way I want to go.” But you know they brought him back and then he had to suffer through years of cancer and pain and suffering. You know we don’t get to pick that. But God is sovereign. Do you think it matters now? No. We look at the things which are not seen.

You realize permeating the Scripture is a very similar emphasis for God’s people but one of the tools of the devil is to get our eyes off of the goal.

Come back to I Peter 5: “After you have suffered for a little while.” Here is what God will do. “The God of all grace who called you will Himself,” this is what He will do, “He will perfect, confirm, strengthen, establish you.” It is the work of God. This is the certainty of what God will do even through the trials and the difficulties. He is refining us. He is not intending to destroy us. Even if our life ends as Pauls’ as a martyr that is part of the plan. The refining work was done. You will note what he says: “He Himself will perfect.” That means to equip or prepare something or someone. You can be fixing something. You’ve heard me talk about in another context, it can be used in a medical sense of fixing a broken arm so perfect in the sense of putting it into the condition it needs to be in. He will bring to completion the work that He has begun. This is part of the gifts that He has given in grace.

In chapter 4, verse 10 of I Peter, back in Ephesians chapter 4, verse 10 Paul said there to the Ephesians that Christ had bestowed the gifts upon us as believers to the church, what, for the equipping of the saints. That basic word we have, “The equipping of the saints,” rendering them fit, bringing them to be all that they need to be. That is part of the process.

Some of the things that we look at as negative, destructive as Paul looked at his thorn in the flesh while he prayed to God three times to remove it. It was a hindrance, it is a negative. Then God reminds him, “No, that is why I can use you to such a great way, to a greater extent than I otherwise would.” You can see it is part of that fitting and bringing us to that point of assurance in our situation. “He will perfect, He will confirm.” Confirm means to make firm or solid, stabilizing something so that it won’t totter or fall over. Sometimes if something has happened they will say, “Well the first thing we have to do is stabilize the foundation.” It is like to stabilize the support here. This is part of what God is doing. He is confirming us. He is making us more firm, more solid so that we will have a stability and believers who have been through trials, been through the fire so to speak have a stability. You talk to believers who have been through persecution in other countries and they manifest that. You think, “Wow, how did they do that?” Well they came through difficulty and trial but God is at work in it to strengthen us, to stabilize us.

Come back to Romans 16. We don’t have time to look at all the references that refer to this but look at Romans chapter 16, verse 25: “Now to Him who is able to establish you.” There we are, to make you firm, solid, stable. You know these different pictures. We are not to be carried about by every wind of doctrine like children. He is strengthening our character so that we are unmovable. We follow Christ wherever it takes us and whatever it involves. We are committed to be faithful to the Word, whatever is the idea. He is the One who is able to establish you according to my Gospel, sets you firm. Part of what He is using. We not only rejoice in the fact that God is doing this but sometimes we want to tell Him how to do it and how not to do it. There is nothing wrong. Paul prayed that the Lord would remove the thorn in the flesh but we also want to pray according to His will because we don’t pray to tell God what He has to do but we can bring the desires of our heart to Him. But you know if He chooses not to remove it I accept that it must be His intention for me to trust Him enduring it.

On your way back stop in I Thessalonians chapter 3. The Thessalonians was another church. They had heard the Gospel in the midst of opposition and suffering and Paul started out telling them in chapter 1 of I Thessalonians of their testimony: “They received the Word in much tribulation with the joy of the Holy Spirit” and they became an example throughout Greece, both in northern Greece and southern Greece, Macedonia and Achaia and what? Their testimony is making an impact.

Come over to chapter 3, verse 13: “Praying for them” and we break into the sentence in verse 13 “so that He may establish your hearts.” That is the goal. Part of Paul’s ministry with the truth, our ministry to one another to encourage one another so that what? We are set firm and as we go through this there is a strength. We like so say, “Oh boy, I don’t want to have these trials and troubles and difficulties.” But you know every one we go through helps to strengthen us, helps us to be more firmly planted so we are not moved.

You are in Thessalonians you might as well stop at II Thessalonians. You see this repeated emphasis. Verse 16 of II Thessalonians 2: “Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and God our Father.” This is the work of God the Father and God the Son, “Who loved us and given us eternal comfort and good hope by grace, comfort and strengthen your hearts in every good work and word.”

The church is called. It is a serious business. We need saints that have stability that stay on course, that are not tottering. This is part of what God is doing. He is confirming, fixing.
Come back to Peter. The end of verse 10: “Strengthen, perfect, confirm.” “Strengthen,” it is only used here in the New Testament. It means to impart strength, to make strong. It is God’s work to make us strong, to stand, “establish you;” a word that means to give a firm foundation. It is used by Paul. Translated ‘grounded’ in Ephesians 3:17, Colossians 1:23, “I firmly established.” You know God just didn’t pile up these verbs here. Talk about the work He does just so we could do all that. Fix it in our mind and each of them carries an emphasis. When it is all said and done you have a people who are rock solid, on firm ground with a firm foundation. We have been stabilized on that foundation. We have strength. He has made the adjustment in changes necessary in us that we are ready to be more useable to Him. The trials and conflicts that may come, that may yet be before us aren’t negative that “I don’t know what is going on. I guess I have to just endure it.” No, it is more of an adventure than that. God is doing something in my life, in our life as a church and we want to gain every bit we can from it, learn everything we can, come through it, strengthened and more mature and more ready for whatever comes next.

Just note verse 11, the doxology there in chapter 5: “To Him be dominion forever and ever, amen.” The word ‘dominion’ means might, sovereign power. It is His sovereign power. The fact that He rules over all that can guarantee that all of this will be accomplished.

Up in verse 6: “Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God.” That word ‘mighty’ connected to dominion. It is His might. “To Him be might, power, sovereign power forever and ever.” Humble yourselves under the sovereign powerful hand of God. I recognize that is what I want to do, humble myself under the sovereign power of His hand. He is in control.

Verse 11: “To Him to that sovereign power forever.” It is an assurance, what? Amen. We talked about this word this morning. Amain – it is true. So everything is good. We are ready for tomorrow whatever it brings. There is nothing going to come into my life that the sovereign God has not planned and prepared for me and what is so important is that as I face it and go through it with my eyes fixed on what He has promised with a desire that His purposes for me will be accomplished and I am willingly humbling myself under His sovereign, all powerful hand so that He can mold me to be the person that He intends me to be in preparation for the glory that He has promised to me, to you, to us as His people.

Let’s pray together. Thank You Lord for all You have provided, all You have promised. It is easy for us to get caught up in the mess of the world, to be distracted and disturbed even fearful, caused to feel uncertain but Lord we serve You, a God who is sovereign over all. We belong to You. You have promised us glory. You have promised us that all the trials and the difficulties, the opposition, the pain will be sifted by You as part of the process to accomplish what only You can accomplish in molding us into conformity to Your character. Lord we pray that You will continue Your work and that we individually and as a church might be strong. That our testimony for You might grow and we might be used in greater ways we pray in Christ’s name, amen.