2010-11-07: Let Go and Let God

Sermon: Let Go and Let God
Speaker: Pastor Val Watkins
Duration: 28:25
Size: 13.0 MB

New Life In The Same Old Place
“Let Go and Let God”
1 Peter 5:5-7

I. The Passage: “Clothe Yourselves…with Humility” (5:5-7)

There is a common thread weaving its way through all three of these verses. It’s the thread of humility.

A. Humility toward the Elders (5:5a)

These leaders were not always older in a chronological sense, but they were typically older, or more mature, spiritually.

Peter is calling the other members of these churches to submit themselves in humility to their leaders.

B. Humility toward One Another (5:5b)

So a rough translation straight from the original language would read, “All of you, toward one another, humility, tie around you as a servant’s apron.”

Have you tied humility around your waist this morning when it comes to your relationships with your brothers and sisters in Christ?

C. Humility toward God (5:6)

No, genuine humility can only come from one place: it can only come from a right view of who God is and our relationship to Him!

You cannot be truly humble unless you measure yourself by who God is and what God wants.

II. God-Centered Humility (5:7)

What’s strange about this connection is that it implies a relationship between humility and the casting off of anxiety; the unloading of our worries.

Pride is confidence that we have this kind of power. Anxiety is fear that we might lose or can’t have this kind of power.

First, we can “let go and let God” because we can trust that God’s grace will empower us to do so.

Second, we can “let go and let God” because we can trust that God’s hand is truly mighty.

Third, we can “let go and let God” because we can trust that God really cares about us.

The humility to which Peter calls his overwhelmed readers is a humility motivated by faith that God is mighty, and mighty in His concern for our absolute good.

We know for certain that the shoulders of God are able to bear all of our anxieties because those same shoulders bore all of our sin on the cross.

Next Week
“The True Grace Of God”

1 Peter 5:8-14