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Amen. Okay, so we're up to the last chapter in 1 Peter. That was a quick book to get through. Hope it's been interesting. And if you look at verse number five there, 1 Peter chapter five and verse number five, the Bible reads, likewise ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. And so the title for the sermon this morning is submit yourselves unto the elder. Now what is the elder here? It's speaking about the church pastor actually. And if you remember what the main theme of 1 Peter is, number one it is the fact that we're called to suffer for Christ, Christ has suffered for us. But number two, that we need to be submissive to the authorities that God has put in our lives. Whether that's the government, whether that's your husband, wives, you know. But we're to submit and to serve one another and then we touch on the local church here in chapter five. And so this is about submitting yourselves to the church pastor. And of course I'm the church pastor, I'm the elder of this church. And so the Bible's instructing you brethren to submit yourselves to the elder, okay. And so, you know, it's a bit weird for the pastor to say that, you know, so you got to submit yourselves to me, that's what the Bible says, okay. This is the authority that God has given certain men to rule in the house of God. And that's something that's been given to me and I appreciate this church. It's not hard to be the pastor of this church. I believe I'm preaching to the best people on the Sunshine Coast and surrounding suburbs, surrounding areas, the best people in Queensland I believe I'm preaching to. So it makes it very easy to be the pastor of this church. But let's start off with verse number one there. First Peter chapter five and verse number one, it says here, the elders which are among you I exhort, okay. So Peter now is right into the pastor, okay. So this is a message to me. This is a message to other pastors, other elders. And then he says this, who am also an elder, okay. So Paul, I mean, so Peter, Peter of course, an apostle of Jesus Christ, okay. He has that office as an apostle, but Peter also had a second office, okay. He also served as an elder. He also served as a pastor of a local church. But let's keep reading. He says, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed. And so Peter's just reminding us, he has seen the suffering of Christ. He saw Christ arrested, he saw Christ tortured, he saw Christ being crucified, okay. But then he says about himself, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed, okay. So he says, look, when Christ comes back in fullness of his glory, I'm going to be a partaker of that glory to come, okay. Now what he's teaching there, he's touching on, if you go back to the previous chapter, First Peter chapter four, verse 13, okay. He's just building off the same lesson from chapter four, verse number 13. He says, but rejoice in as much as ye are partakers of Christ's suffering, that when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy, okay. So he's harkening back to what he wrote in chapter number four. And so he's saying, what he's saying here is that we can glory, we can rejoice in Christ's glory, we can rejoice when Christ comes back, but because, the reason he can rejoice is because he was a partaker of Christ's suffering. And so when we start off with verse number, chapter five, verse number one here, he says that he's also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed. What he's saying that he's also been a partaker of the suffering of Christ, okay. He has suffered persecution. He has gone through some difficulties, being someone that speaks about the Lord Jesus Christ. And so he wants to preach to the pastors here. And the first thing that he's basically saying to the pastors is expect you to suffer. Expect to go through suffering, all right. Now, if you've got your heart set to be a pastor, let me just start, very first thing, expect some suffering, expect some difficulties, expect people to turn their backs on you, expect people to backstab you, expect people to speak bad of you, expect people to criticize you. That's part of the job, okay. And if you don't want that, then don't be a pastor because it's gonna happen, okay. Whether it's people within the church, whether it's people without the church, outside of the church, it's gonna come your way, okay. But hey, whether you participate in that, what you can also rejoice in is the fact that you're gonna be glorified when Jesus Christ comes back. We're going to touch upon that soon. But I want you to notice that Peter is saying here that he is also an elder, okay. Now, when it comes to the Roman Catholic Church, all right, when it comes to their popes and their bishops and their priests, they teach that these men are not allowed to get married, okay. They teach celibacy, that these men are not to have a wife. And this is why many of them end up being extreme perverts. Many of them end up being pedophiles because the Bible doesn't teach that. If you're going to be an elder, you're gonna be pastoring, leading a church, the expectation is that you take one wife. You've got a wife, you've got children, right. There's a healthy relationship in that marriage, okay. And so the first thing I want you to notice is Peter referring himself to an elder is basically saying that he's married, okay. He's not what the Catholics say Peter is as their first Pope. No, this was a married man. And if they're going to be building their teaching of Peter, then all of their popes, all of their priests, right, should have been married. It just shows that that's like the very first thing when you look at the Roman Catholic Church, you just realize what a huge mistake you've made and look at the disaster you've caused, you know, abusing little children, you know, homosexuality, pedophilia is rampant in that church, all right. Now, just to prove this, can you please keep your finger and then go to Titus chapter one, go to Titus chapter one. And while you're turning to Titus, you know, I'm going to read to you from Matthew chapter eight verse 14, it says here, and when Jesus was coming to Peter's house, he saw his wife's mother laid and sick of a fever, okay. So the Lord Jesus comes to Peter's house and Peter's mother-in-law is sick. Listen, you don't volunteer to have a mother-in-law without a wife, okay. There are challenges with the in-laws, it's always the case, all right. Peter did not just take on a mother-in-law, the reason he's got a mother-in-law is because he's got a wife, it's his wife's mother, okay. So what we learned there is that Jesus Christ comes into Peter's house and he's got a wife there, Peter does, okay, and he's also got his mother living with them, okay. I assume she's probably a little bit more elderly or whatever, sickly maybe, that's why they're taking care of her. But you turn to Titus chapter one verse five, it says here, for this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou should have set in order the things that are wanting and ordained elders in every city as I had appointed thee, okay. So Titus has been instructed, you need to ordain elders, right, elders, what is Peter? An elder, right, he said he's an elder. Let's keep going, verse number six. If any be blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children not accused of right or unruly, okay, so does the elder, is one of the qualifications to be an elder, is it to be the husband of one wife? Absolutely, so if Peter's able to call himself an elder of the church, that means he's the husband of one wife, that means he's got faithful children. Look at verse number seven, for a bishop must be blameless as the stewards of God, not self-filled, not soon angry, not given to wine, not stroker, not given to filthy Luca, okay. So what we see in verse number seven is that the elder is also a bishop. Okay, we talk about the office of a bishop, hey, that's the office of a pastor. One thing you'll notice, and I'll prove this to you, is that the term pastor or shepherd, bishop and elder, are all speaking of the same office. These are just different terms used interchangeably in the Bible, okay. So he's called to ordain elders, make sure the bishops are like this. Well, of course, because the bishop is the elder, right. And so when Peter, once again, referring to himself as an elder, he's saying he's got the office of a bishop. He's not just got the office of a apostle, which he did have, but he's also pastoring a local church, all right. Now, if you drop down to verse number 13, as well in the same chapter, First Peter five, verse number 13, it says here, the church that is at Babylon, okay. So this is Peter's church, okay. He even names this church, the church that is at Babylon. Okay, so he definitely is the pastor of a church, and we'll get onto that later on as we keep going down the chapter as to what that church at Babylon is exactly, all right. So let's look at verse number two now. First Peter chapter five and verse number two. Now he's instructing the elders, so these are the instructions for pastors, okay. He says here, feed the flock of God, which is among you. Okay, so he's referring to the church members as sheep, as the flock, okay. Who's responsible for feeding the sheep? Who's responsible for leading the sheep into green pastures so they can find food? It's the shepherd's job, right, the shepherd's job. So you can see again, elder, bishop, yeah, it's the shepherd, right. Feed the flock of God, which is among you. Now look at the next phrase, taking the oversight thereof. Okay, what does the term bishop, what's bishop mean? Bishop means overseeing, okay, the overseer, okay. So he's saying, look, feed the church of God, that's the role of the shepherd. Then he says, taking the oversight thereof, that's the role of the bishop, right. And he's saying this to the elder, so it's the same office. Okay, they're just different roles of the same office. Then it says this, not by constraint, okay, but willingly, all right. So he's saying, look, if you're gonna take on the office, don't do it by constraint, don't be forced to do it. You know, I remember one of my, one of the pastors that I was under at church, he had one of his sons and he brought his son once, I think it'd be in front of everybody. And his son was young, I think his son would have been less than 10 years old. And he says, you know, my son is either gonna be a pastor or he's gonna be a missionary, right, he's gonna serve God. And the church is like, amen. And I'm thinking, but what if he doesn't wanna take that role, what if he doesn't wanna be a missionary? What if he wants to be the humble plumber or something? Right, not by constraint, not forced. I'm not forcing any of my kids to be pastors, okay. You know, I'd just rather them just take on any job and just be a faithful member of church, a faithful soul winner, just love God with their lives. Okay, if they can do that, I'm happy. If they can do that, mission accomplished, all right. I'm not expecting that one day I become old, you know, too old for the office, and I come and ordain Sebastian or something, right. I'm not expecting that to happen. You know, I'm not thinking that New Life Baptist Church just has to carry this family line, you know, from generation to generation. And that's all right, you know, we know what to be looking for the right person, the person that willingly wants to be the pastor to take on that responsibility, okay. So forcing people, the other idea that I get here sometimes, have you ever, you know, I don't know if you ever look up missionaries from America, missionaries that come to Australia sometimes, and I look at their missionary letters, you know, I mean, I don't really look at it so much today, but I used to in the past. And they'd say in the missionary letters, you know, I've established 20 churches, you know, he's a church planter, started 20 churches, and I used to be impressed. I go, man, it's hard enough to start one church, let alone 20 churches, how'd you do that? Now, you know, we see the apostle Paul, he starts a lot of churches, right, but man, he went through a lot, you know, he pretty much gave up his life of being a husband and all that, you know, he went out, you know, he was a eunuch for the kingdom of God's sake, right. I mean, he went around, you know, his entire life, he basically gave his whole life to start churches. But when I started to ask the question, well, what are these churches, where are they? Oh, it doesn't exist anymore. Oh, that church, yeah, it's not there anymore. I mean, why are you telling me that you started 20 churches when maybe 15 out of 20 aren't running? That's a bad track record. That's not bad, that's not good. So don't boast about the 20 churches you started, okay, don't boast about that church and this church if they're not even running today. What's the point? And so this is what I find, you get these American missionaries coming in, and you know, many of my Australian Baptist pastors agree with this, okay. There's different conversations that I had with them, right, they come, they report back to America, they say, Lan, we started this church, maybe they got 10 people, they got 20 people, small churches, of course, right, and nothing wrong with small church, but they start that, and it's like, well, now God's called me back to America to take over some huge 200-member church, right, some 500-member church, that's where God wants me now, right, and what happens is he leaves, but you know, the church is small, the church is still young, and so he ends up ordaining some man that doesn't want the office, because they're gonna lose the pastor, and it's like, well, who's the best man in the church, who cares if he meets the qualifications or not, we'll make him the pastor, and so you got Australian Baptist pastors today that have the role, have been ordained in that position, but never really wanted it. It's not like they willingly took it up, it's like, well, somebody's gotta be the pastor, I guess it's gonna be me, you know, that's not how things ought to run, okay, that's not how things ought to be. Verse number two, it says, not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind, you know, if you're going into being a pastor for money, it's not, listen, if you want independent Baptist church, fundamental Baptist church that's going to preach the Bible without compromise, just forget about money, okay, it's not gonna happen for you in church, you might as well just get an honest job that's working hard, you know, and it's important to not be driven by money, you know, and this is why I truly believe if someone's gonna be a pastor, I don't wanna see some teenager from high school go into Bible college or something, you know, just desiring, you know, I'm out of Bible college, I'm out of high school, next thing for me is to be a pastor, because you know what, when they do become pastors and they become that, they're gonna see more money than they've ever seen in their whole life, okay, for them, okay, it's not much, but for them it's a lot, and they're gonna be driven by money, they're gonna be thinking, I can't preach this because brother so-and-so, he gives a lot to the church, I don't wanna offend him, I would rather some man just work an honest job, Monday to Friday, just work hard, you're actually gonna make more money in that job, okay, you know, get yourself ready and then step into the office of a pastor because you're gonna get a lot less, and that's definitely not going to drive you for Filthy Luca to get into the office, all right, and you gotta be careful because, you know, a lot of money can come through the local church, even if everyone's faithfully giving the tithes and maybe even offerings above that potentially, you know, there's a lot that will land in someone's hand and you gotta be mindful about that, right, someone that just is doing it for the money, pastor Donnie Romero, okay, a classic example, stealing money from the church and taking that and using it on prostitutes and gambling and the like, there are pastors like that, can you believe it? I mean, when I found that news, they were shocking to me, right, it's, look, even amongst your independent, fundamental Baptist churches, even amongst your new IFB churches, this can happen, so you gotta make sure you ordain the right men, okay, but of a ready mind, now please, if you can keep your finger there, go to John chapter 21, John chapter 21, John 21, because when was Peter ordained into this position as a pastor? I believe he was ordained by Jesus Christ, actually, in John 21, verse 15, John 21, verse 15, and it says here in John 21, 15, so when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee, he saith unto him, feed my lambs. What was Peter saying to the elders here, to the pastors? Feed the flock of God, right? And then verse number 16, he saith to him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He saith unto him, yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee? He saith unto him, feed my sheep. Verse number 17, he saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, lovest thou me, and he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee? Jesus saith unto him, feed my sheep. What is the role of the pastor, to feed the sheep? That is the main role, the main role. My main role as your pastor is to feed you the word of God, to give you what you need to live your life in accordance to the will of God. That's my main job, right? My main job is not to go house to house and sort out your issues, okay? My main job is not even a live broadcast. My main job is not some online ministry. My main job is to feed you the word of God, okay? That's the main job of the pastor. And so what do we notice? That feeding the flock is a reference to the shepherd, right? You're leading the sheep, you're leading the green pastures, you're feeding them the word of God. And listen, it's such a sad thing when people say, you know, I'm not being fed in my church. I go to church, I wanna learn the Bible, but I'm not being fed. You know what? That's not a pastor. That's not a shepherd. That's not a man that loves Jesus. Jesus says, if you love me, feed my sheep. Brethren, if you're being fed by the preaching of God's word in this church, then that proves to you that I love Jesus Christ, okay? If you say, I'm not being fed, I'm not learning new things, I'm just not gaining knowledge, that's proof that the pastor does not love Jesus Christ. Okay, these things come together. Taking the oversight thereof, we looked at that, which was the bishop, the overseer, he's in charge, he's making sure everything is running the way it should be. The elder, the reference to an elder. Yes, you know, we think of the elder as far as age, someone might be an older person, but when it comes to the position of a pastor, it's not about being older, because Timothy was young. Remember that? Remember Timothy was a young pastor. What he refers to is spiritual maturity. So yeah, I mean, age is important. You don't want a 12-year-old becoming a pastor or something, right? But someone that is spiritually mature, someone that's, that's what it means by elder, right? Someone that is not a novice, someone that's not new to the faith, someone that's not new to, you know, church, right? Someone that has some experience, right? Someone that's been married for a while, someone that's had a few kids, and has proven that he can raise his family, you know, to follow after the Lord Jesus Christ, someone that has some experience, right? That's what an elder is, right? God does not want some novice to be that pastor. And so look at verse number three now. It says, neither as being in Lords over God's heritage, so you guys have been referred to as God's heritage here, but being in samples to the flock, all right? Now, 1 Corinthians 8, 6 says, but to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him, and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him. Brethren, there's one Lord. There's one Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ, okay? So the instruction of the pastor here is, don't be Lords over God's heritage. Don't think that you're like Jesus Christ. Don't think that you're above everybody else, and that people are coming to serve you. No, rather, you are to be an sample to the flock. And that's the hardest part, I think, of being a pastor, knowing that, hey, people have to look at me a little bit, and say, well, that's an example of a godly man. And I know that I'm not always godly. I know I make mistakes. I know that I sin, all right? And I know that my family's not perfect, and I know all these things, and so that's the hardest bit of it, knowing that people are watching your family, people are watching your children, and that's not a bad thing. That's something that you need to understand, that you're an example to the flock. You ought to set a good example of what it is to be a godly man, a godly wife and godly children, raising them to love the Lord. You know, that's not to show off. That's to encourage the others that maybe are not as spiritually mature to say, hey, it's achievable, right? This is possible, right? You know, living for Jesus Christ is possible in 2020, okay? That's the point behind it, to motivate, to encourage people to live in a light of God's word. And so not being lords over God's heritage, that's my favorite part. That's what ultimately made me tick the box and say, yes, I'll be a pastor, because I don't like being a lord over anybody, okay? I've got 11 kids. I've got a wife. That's enough for me. I don't want to be looking after you. I don't want to be in charge of your life, brethren. You know, yes, I'm in charge in the church now for the next hour or so, but when you go home, that's it, brethren. You know, if you invite me to your house, I've got to be submissive to your rules in your house. If you say, hey, we take off shoes in our house, I'm going to take off my shoes, whether I do it in my house or not, right? I'm not going to your house to be your lord, okay? I don't lord over other people. That's my favorite part. Why? Because I didn't like it when people were lording over me. All right? You know, and look, I didn't have any pastors in my life that really tried to lord over my life. But, and I don't think any of the pastors that I was in were even trying to do that. But what you'll find is within the church, there is almost this expectation that, hey, that is my lord. The pastor is my lord. Everything he says goes, right? Any advice I need, I'm going to go to him. You know, if I just need to work out, you know, what job do I get and when do I go on holidays? And I just ask any kind of stupid question my pastor has to tell me. It's almost like if he tells me, then I know God told me. That's crazy. That's crazy. You know, there are times that I made decisions for my family. I'll tell you one, I went to Victory Baptist Church for nine years. We made the decision to leave that church, okay? On, not on anything negative, right? I left that church and we had people come up to me and say, have you checked with the pastor? Is he letting you go? I'm like, what in the world? I'm the head of my family. You know, my pastor's not the head of my family. If I'm pulling my family out of a church, that's my decision. That's my family. That's my life. It's not up to the pastor to tell me whether he thinks I should go or stay. Listen, same for you. If this is not the church for you, I'm not going to beg you, stay. You know what? If you say, hey, there's a better church in my area, you know, I hope it's a better church. I hope you get better preaching. And if that's the case, I'll say, God bless you, brother. You know, I hope the best for you. You know, I don't want to lord over you, right? I don't want to beg you to stay. I want to make sure that I can preach the Bible without thinking who's going to leave now. That's not how it should be, right? I don't want to lord over you. Look at verse number four. And when the chief shepherd shall appear, so this is the first reference of the word shepherd, right? So now it's saying, hey, you're the elder, but there's a chief shepherd, okay? So what's that talking about? The fact that the elder is an under shepherd, right? There's a chief shepherd, the head of the church, that Jesus Christ, when the chief shepherd shall appear, you shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away. And so we can see that there with the word shepherd. Now, when it comes to the word, you say, why do we say pastor in English? Why do we say pastor Kevin or pastor Sepulveda or pastor whoever? Why do we say that? It's not really an Australian word. That's right, it's not an English word. It's a Latin word. It's a Latin word. And so when you say shepherd in Latin, it's pastor, okay? It comes from the word pasture when you lead sheep to a pasture. You know, in Spanish, for the word shepherd, it's pastor, and the word for pastor, church pastor, is pastor. It's the same word, okay? In Spanish, it's the same word for shepherd and pastor. It means the same thing. That's why we use the word pastor today, all right? I mean, I guess that's what we've gotten used to. That's what we're used to in our culture, right? It sounds weird if you said shepherd Kevin, right? Dear Lord, please help shepherd Kevin to preach, you know, the words. It's like, what's going on? It sounds a bit unusual. So, you know, culturally speaking, we go with the term pastor, okay? But notice here, and if you look at the end of verse number four, now remember, he's speaking to the pastors here. He's speaking to the elders, right? When the chief shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away, okay? Now, I truly believe this is a crown only for pastors because he's speaking directly to the pastors, right? And the crown of glory is not mentioned anywhere else in the Bible where it's a general crown. This is something specific for the pastor. And let me, you know, I just tell you the truth. I want that crown, okay? I want that crown. If I'm a good pastor, I'm a good bishop, I'm a good overseer, you know, I'm a good elder, you know, I care for this church, I feed this church, then I'm expecting that crown of glory. I'm gonna be a little bit embarrassed if Jesus Christ comes back and all the pastors line up, whatever, however it works, right? You got the crown of glory, yeah, you got the crown of glory, pastor Kevin. He's, you know, he's, I don't know. You get a golden brick, right, for your house. That's what you get. You miss out on the crown of glory. I'll be embarrassed. I'll be like, oh man, you know, I think if you're gonna be a pastor, if that's a desire you have, hey, you know what? Aim for the crown of glory, glory, right? We're being encouraged to achieve that, a crown of glory that fadeth not away. And that'll be verse number five. Now it says, likewise ye younger. Now don't forget, this is not saying, no, let's finish it. Likewise ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder, okay? So first of all, is this saying that young people, children, teenagers, if you're younger than, I'm 39, if you're younger than me, you ought to be submissive to me. Is that what it's saying? I mean, you should be submissive to me in the church, why shouldn't you? But remember, don't forget the context. It's referring the elder as the pastor, the elder because he's spiritually mature, and the younger is basically those that are not the pastor. Okay, that refers to everybody else, right? So the expectation is that the pastor should be the most spiritually mature person in the church, should be. Now you're like, oh man, I should have known that about you, Pastor Kevin. You're always joking around and mucking around. I didn't know you were the spiritual mature one. Yeah, I am, I guess I am, right? And so in reference to this, everyone else is younger in comparison to the elder. Okay, that's what it's referring to, right? The spiritual maturity there. Likewise ye younger, so this is everybody, submit yourselves unto the elder, yea, all of you be subjects one to another and be clothed with humility, for God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble. So the instruction of God here is that you ought to be submissive to me as the older. And again, this is not in your own homes. This is not in your workplace. This is at church, all right? When I want you to do something, please just say, yeah, I'm gonna be submissive to the pastor, right? Now, it doesn't just say that you are to be submissive to me and just serve me, because don't forget a pastor's role is to be the minister of God, to be a servant himself, right? And that's why it says, yea, all of you be subject one to another. Yea, be submissive to the pastor. Hey, but pastor, you also be submissive to those or be subject to those that you're preaching to. Be subject to the flock. And yet each one of you ought to be subject to each other. You know, we come to church to serve. Now, some people say, you know, we use this term church service. Have you ever wondered why that meant? Church service, what time is the church service on? Because the reason it's service is because I'm going to serve. That's the point, okay? Oh no, it's church service because I'm getting served. No, no, it's church service because you've got to serve, right? And you start by serving the Lord God. That's why we start with the songs, the praises. We're serving God with our voices. But hey, we need to serve and be subject one to another. And so, you know, I really challenge you, church. Please think about what can you do in this local body to serve this church? There's no bad ideas. You know, just throw some ideas my way. If you're already doing nothing for this church, just think about it. What can I do? You know, we see time and time again the Bible's telling us we're to be subject, we're to serve one another, clothed with humility. So when you serve, it's not about showing off. It's about being humble, okay? If you don't get recognition, you don't get recognition. Okay? Just take it with humility, all right? And then it says, for God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble. You know what this is telling me? This is telling me that there can be church people that are full of pride, okay? That they'll listen to the pastor preach, and they'll say, I can do a better job than that. I don't think he gave his best to serve the church today. That's being prideful, okay? That's being proud, right? We're trying to turn people against the pastor, trying to split the church. Hey, did you see pastor's kid? Hey, he did that, wah. You know, and start feeding some gossip and some rumors around, trying to cause people to not have that humility toward the pastor. And this happens in church. And I don't know, maybe it's happened in this church already. I have no idea, I don't know. Okay, I'm pretty ignorant of these things sometimes, until it really matters. But you know what? We need to make sure and understand that God will resist you, okay? If you're resisting the authority that God's put over you in this church, well, God will resist you. Please keep your finger there and go to Proverbs chapter three. Because this phrase, for God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble, comes from the book of Proverbs. So let's have a look at how it's quoted there. Proverbs chapter three, verse 34. Proverbs chapter three and verse number 34. Proverbs chapter three, verse number 34 reads, it says here, surely he, and this is referring to God, surely he, that's God, scorneth the scorners, but he giveth grace unto the lowly, right? So it's only in 1 Peter, it said that he giveth grace to the humble, here it says he giveth grace to the lowly, but don't forget the first part, for he scorneth the scorners. You know what, if you come to church and you're scorned the pastor, you don't respect the pastor, you're trying to turn people against him, well, God's gonna scorn you, that's the promise. You scorn the authority that God's put in the church, God will scorn you. Boy, I don't know what that looks like, but I don't think it's good, all right? I don't think it's good to know that God is scorned me, he's mocking me, he's making my life difficult, why? Because you're making the pastor's life difficult, that's why, okay? And look, if you find that you cannot be submissive to the pastor, I don't like the pastor I'm under, well, go find a pastor you can be under, go find a pastor that you can be, you can show humility toward. You know, I would rather, I'd rather have a small church, knowing that the church is just being submissive and humble to all the pastor, than a huge church, knowing that half the church is angry at the pastor and, oh, who's this man, why is he telling me what the Bible says? Just go find the pastor that you can be humble to them, you know? And if there is no other pastor to be humble to, then learn how to be humble, all right? You don't want God to be scorned in you. Hebrews chapter 13, verse 17 says, obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves, for they watch for your souls, that's the overseer, right? As they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief, for that is unprofitable for you. Don't forget that. One day, yeah, I'm gonna be judged by God, whether I'm worthy of the crown of glory, but then I'm gonna have to give judgment on you guys. So it's better for us to just get along, right? It's better for us to just be humble and serve each other, love one another, because I wanna give a good account. Say, Pastor Kevin, maybe you can lie for me. You know, maybe, I'm gonna have a new resurrected body, I can't lie. As much as I might wanna give you a good light, and say, you know what, let's just be soft on this guy. I can't in my new resurrected body. I'm gonna be given an honest report about it. There's no sin in that new resurrected body, I can't lie for you, okay? So just let's get on with each other, just be submissive to the authority that God has given you. And look, we don't have a problem with that in church, I think, you know, I feel. I think everybody, you know, for the last almost three years now, has shown a lot of humility, a lot of respect toward me, and I really appreciate it. Verse number six, now this is important, because, hey, you know, humble yourself to the pastor, be obedient to the pastor, right? And then it reminds us here, verse number six, humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time. So he says, look, it's gonna be hard to submit myself to the pastor, but just humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God. If you show humility, if you serve in the church, if you're faithful and respectful to the pastor, you're humbling yourself under the hand of God. Hey, it was just like when we read about humbling yourselves and being submissive to the governing authorities. It says, for the Lord's sake. That's how you do it, because God is expecting you to be submissive to the government. You know what, God is expecting you to be submissive to your pastor, okay? We can do it under the mighty hand of God. I want that mighty hand of God to exalt me in due time. I don't want that mighty hand of God spawning me and bringing the chastisement upon me, all right? I mean, that mighty hand of God goes both ways. He can either exalt you or he can humble you, right? The Bible says in Luke 14, 11, but whosoever exalts of himself shall be abased, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. All right, so listen, God wants to exalt you. Maybe some of you guys one day, I don't know, you might get into full-time ministry in the church, a pastor, an evangelist, a deacon, who knows, all right? How do I get that position? You humble yourself, you serve, you be faithful, you know, you be a help to your pastor, and in due time, with God's mighty hand, he will exalt you, okay? But if you're squalning, if you're not being submissive, you're saying how you think church ought to be run, you know, you have better ideas and pastor's doing it all wrong, we expect God to abase you, okay? You're trying to exalt yourself, God's just gonna bring you low, you know? And likely you're not even gonna be taken in a position like that, you know, if that's your attitude. Verse number seven, cast in all your care upon him, for he careth for you. So just in Psalm 55, 22, it says, cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee, he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved, all right? So as I said, you know, if you're going into the office as a pastor, then expect some suffering, okay? Expect some difficulties, right? But when that happens, and this is not just for the pastor, but this is for everybody, it just says, look, cast your burden upon the Lord, bring your cares upon him, he will sustain thee, he will not suffer the righteous to be moved, all right? That's my desire, I wanna be a stable pastor, I want you to know that my commitment is to this church, even though we're going down to Sydney for 12 months, I want you to know that we're gonna be back up here at the end of the 12 months, okay? That's gonna happen, all right? There might be 12 months in one day, it might be 12 months in two weeks, okay, I'm not saying exactly 52 weeks, okay? I'm just saying that's the goal, to get up here, back here, look, you know, I want you to know that I'm stable with the Lord, and any pressures, any sufferings that might come, I'm just gonna cast them to the Lord, and he's gonna make sure that I remain unmovable, all right? But it's the same thing for you, he careth for you. Verse number eight, okay? Verse number eight, be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour. Now Brevin, if you had a lion, a roaring lion, just walking down your street, what are you gonna do? You gonna get out there and pat the lion? No, you're gonna hide yourself in the house, right? You're gonna call brother Jason to go pick up the lion, instead of the dog today, there's a lion, can you go and get that for me? You're gonna shout the alarm, you're gonna let people know the lion's about? Listen, it says here that the devil is walking about right now, as a roaring lion, okay? He's looking, how can I destroy New Life Baptist Church? How can I destroy brother so-and-so, sister so-and-so, right? When they leave the umbrella of God's protection in God's house, when they leave and they go about their business for the rest of the week, the devil's roaring about like a lion, looking how he can take advantage of you. Be aware of that, you know, the spiritual life is real. There's a real lion out there. Okay, you gotta be careful, all right? Be careful about the devil, he's a real thing. Sometimes you go soul-willing, and people say, well, I don't really believe in God, I don't really believe in the devil. You know what that, yeah, the devil's gotten his claws into that person already, okay? There's already, the devil's already feasting on that, that lost soul. So we need to be careful, you know, and be aware that, listen, you know, we have a good church, yes, you know, God's given us so many things, but there's an enemy seeking to hurt us. Verse number five says, verse number nine, sorry, verse number nine says, whom resist steadfast in the faith, okay? So we've been instructed to resist the devil, okay? That means the devil is going to influence you, okay? He is gonna somehow have an effect on you to the point that you actually have to resist that, right? Resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. What is this saying? This saying that we have brethren all around this world, okay, and we know some of those brethren, praise God for the brethren, yes, we have a lot of brethren in Australia, we have brethren in every nation in this world, okay? But every, all of them also had had to face that line, they've all had to face him, and they've all been able to resist steadfastly in the faith, okay, so we've been encouraged here, yes, you know what, it may be difficult, it may be challenging to face that line, but you can resist it, resist that line, we can resist the devil in the same way that your brethren across this world is doing the same thing, okay? So it's to motivate us to encourage us that we're not the only ones being targeted, the devil wants to destroy all the believers of the world. Keep your finger there please, and go to James chapter four, go to James chapter four, verse seven. James chapter four, verse seven. I think this gives us the clearest way of how we can resist the devil. James chapter four, verse seven says, submit yourselves therefore to God, okay? That's point number one, submit yourself to God, all right? Now what are we learning in first Peter, chapter five? To submit to the pastor, okay, under the mighty hand of God, okay? Submit to the authorities, submit to the governments, submit to your managers in your workplace, submit to the authorities that God has put up, your wives, submit yourselves to your husband, we're learning all this stuff, right, all about being submissive, right, and that's what God wants for us, and when we do that, we are submitting ourselves to God, because he's put authority over our lives, right? Submit yourselves therefore to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you, okay? Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Look at verse number eight, draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. How do we overcome the devil? We draw nigh to the Lord, right? We submit ourselves to the authorities that God has put over our lives, we also spend some time cleansing our hands, trying to get the sin out of our lives, because we allow that, those temptations, those sins to be, you know, have power in our lives, that's what the devil's gonna use to attack you, that's what the devil's gonna use to bring you low, we gotta try to submit ourselves and overcome those sins that we have, brethren. Never forget that yes, you know, we're gonna sin to the day we die, but that doesn't mean we try not to sin, okay? We ought to be sinning less on the day that you die than you sin today, we ought to be striving to sin less in our lives, right? Repent from the things, from the wicked things that we've done. Look at verse number 10, back to 1 Peter chapter five, verse number 10. 1 Peter chapter five, verse number 10 says, "'But the God of all grace, "'who have called us unto his eternal glory "'by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, "'make you perfect, establish, strengthen, settle you.'" What is this verse promising us? That we're all gonna suffer for a while, okay? A while, how long is that? Life is about suffering. There's gonna be suffering in your life, okay? And when you find yourself unable to cope with it, or maybe even getting angry at God or whatever, remind yourself of this verse, it makes it clear why God allows us to suffer. He says here, to make you perfect, okay? To make you well-rounded. There are things in your life that you need to work on when you're suffering, okay? Take advantage of the suffering you go through. Lord, what is it that I need to fix? Establish, he's going to make you more grounded. Strengthen, he's gonna make you stronger. Settle you, he's gonna give you that peace, right? Settle down. That's why God allows us to suffer a while, okay, in this life. You're not gonna be suffering your entire life, okay? But the suffering will be for a while, okay? Look at 1 Peter chapter one, go back to chapter one for me. Verse number six, 1 Peter chapter one, verse number six says, wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations, okay? So we can be in heaviness of manifold temptations, that's the suffering, but it says, look, this is for a season, okay? What Peter wants to draw to our attention, it's just a little while, it's the season, look, these are just temple things. We have eternity to look forward to. This life, brethren, yeah, it can fuel long sometimes, especially if you're going through hardships, you're going through suffering, but it is so insignificant, so insignificant compared to all of eternity, okay? We're gonna be living forever with each other, with our Lord God, we believe is all across this world. In 2 Corinthians 4.17, it says, for our light affliction, which is but for a moment, okay? So you see, it's a while, it's a season, it's a moment, work for us a far more exceeding and eternal way of glory, and this says this in verse number 18, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen, for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal, okay? So when we suffer, remind yourself, this is just temporal, this is a while, this is a season, this is a moment, okay? This is not gonna be my life forever, because my life forever is eternal life in heaven, where I'm not going to suffer, okay? And I'm going to be able to glory, hey, God gives you that suffering so he can work in you, hey, God wants to reward you if you're faithfully and patiently suffering for his name, faithfully and patiently learning the lessons that you need to learn in your life, okay? And he can glorify you for all eternity. One day, we're gonna step into eternity. I know we expect tomorrow to just come, next week, next Sunday, it's just gonna be church again, we're just gonna continue on this earth. Listen, one day, we're all gonna step into eternity, okay? And this life that we live in now, it'll be all over, it'll be that vapor, where'd it go, it's gone, okay? And now we've got all eternity, what am I gonna do in heaven for eternity? How am I gonna serve God for eternity? And then you'll be thinking, what did I do for God when I was on the earth? When I suffered, I complained, I murmured, I whined, when I was on the earth, I criticized my brother, hey, he's in heaven now, he's got a bigger mansion than me, and I just criticized that brother, I just wasted my time on the earth, I don't want you to be like that. I want you to understand, this is temporary, let's love each other, let's be submissive to each other, let's be subject to each other, let's do what God wants us to do, let's live a life in accordance to his word, because I don't wanna have regrets in heaven, all right? And we are all gonna have some level of regret, you know, wishing we did more, okay? But I don't want you to go to heaven thinking, man, I just wasted my life. Man, I got the big mansion on earth, but now it's gone, it was a vapor, it's disappeared, and I've got this little cottage. No, no, you're gonna get a mansion, Jesus promised you a mansion, okay? But hey, you know, Jesus Christ is gonna reward us for what we've done for him. You know what, he can reward you even in times of suffering. And if you just suffer for Jesus Christ, you suffer, learn what God wants to teach you, he will reward you in heaven for everything you do in this life for his service, right? Look at verse number 11, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever, amen, okay? That's basically the end of the epistle. We do have a little bit more, but listen, everything that we do ought to give God glory, and, you know, the fact, and, you know, in light of that, God has dominion over all things. He has dominion over our lives, he has dominion over this church, he's got dominion in your workplace, he's got dominion in your family, he's got dominion, yes, even in our nation, even in the governments, he's got dominion, okay? He is above all things, and everything we do in our lives ought to give glory to God, you know? God ought to look down on no matter what part of your life you live in, okay? Even in your house, God ought to be looking down and saying, wow, what they're doing gives me glory, okay? And so this is the end, amen. He's basically signing off the letter, but then there is a little bit of conclusion at the end of this. Verse number 12. By Silvanus, a faithful brother unto you as I suppose, I have written briefly exhorting and testifying that this is the true grace of God wherein ye stand. So he's saying, look, Silvanus, I think Silvanus might be, Silvanus is writing this epistle, but he may also have been used to be the messenger of this letter to the different people, different believers, different churches, right? Silvanus is mentioned a few times in the Bible, but is most popular for the books of 1st and 2nd Thessalonians. I'll just give you an example very quickly. In 1st Thessalonians chapter one verse one, it says, Paul and Silvanus and Timotheus answer the church of the Thessalonians, okay? So we often say that Paul wrote Thessalonians, and he did, you know? Of course, Paul is the main guy speaking these things, but also these are messages from Silvanus and Timotheus or Timothy as well. And then 2nd Thessalonians one, one, it says, Paul and Silvanus and Timotheus answer the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. So he's also involved in writing or at least delivering 2nd Thessalonians as well with Paul and Timothy. And so, you know, now I'm not sure exactly when 1st Peter was written, 2nd Peter. I think it's toward the end of Peter's life, you know? And so it's possible that Paul's not in the picture anymore. I'm not sure, but for some reason, Silvanus has gone from serving and working with Paul and now he's working with Peter, okay? But I want you to notice it says, I have, in verse number 12, it says, I have written briefly exhorting. What did exhort mean again? It meant to motivate, to encourage, right? And so that's the purpose of the pastor's heart, okay? He wants to motivate, he wants to encourage the people of God. Look at verse number 13. And this is probably the most mysterious part of the whole, you know, book. It says here, the church that is at Babylon, elected together with you, salute of you, and so doth Marcus my son, all right? So the church that is at Babylon. Now a lot of people have different views as to what this is. And look, I really believe we can't be 100% sure, okay? Everyone's got opinions, all right? Let me just share what the three main opinions are. Number one, that verse number 13, the church that is at Babylon is a literal church at Babylon, like literal Babylon. So where was Babylon? Babylon was in Assyria or modern day Iraq, as we know it today, right? Babylon was a city there. And, you know, so his church, some people say, was literally in Babylon or some of the surrounding areas. Why is that important? Because you remember the southern kingdom, the Jews were taken into captivity by the Babylonian empire. So those that take a very literal reading of this will say, you know, they're probably still Jews in that land. They're probably still Jews in that area. Peter finds himself eventually in that area and he starts the church there. Maybe, I think that's probably the least likely, okay? But I guess it's possible, okay? But it's probably the least likely out of the three major opinions. The second opinion is the church that is at Babylon is referring to Jerusalem, okay? And so it's not a literal Babylon, but a symbolic Babylon. And actually my belief is that it is a symbolic Babylon, okay? And so, symbolic Babylon number one is that this is Jerusalem. And the reason people think this might be Jerusalem is because when you read the book of Acts, and you know, Paul is traveling, for example, back to Jerusalem, to the church. Peter is mentioned many times. I think when Paul wrote, yeah, yeah, when he wrote Galatians, he refers to the fact that he's gone to Jerusalem. He refers to Peter as one of the pillars in the church, as well as James, the half-brother of Jesus Christ. So these seem like they were pastors or elders of the church there in Jerusalem. I think that one carries a lot more weight. And so he's referring to Jerusalem as Babylon. And so that's another view some people have that is symbolic of that. The third view is that Babylon is Rome. Babylon is Rome, the Roman Empire, and that perhaps Peter, and we don't have any proof of this in the Bible, perhaps Peter, because remember, first and second Peter seem to be toward the end of his life. So maybe, yeah, maybe he studied in Jerusalem, maybe eventually he found himself in Rome, started a church there, that's a possibility. And so some people think it's Rome. Why do they think it's Rome? Because in Daniel chapter two, when King Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, is given that vision, remember that vision of that statue, with a golden head and chest and arms of silver, and it was a bronze belly and thighs and iron legs. And so you've got that golden head, which represents the Babylonian Empire, okay, so Babylon. And then you've got the silver breast and arms, which represents the Media-Persian Empire. So you know, the Media-Persian Empire is kind of like symbolically Babylon in those days. And then you've got the Greek Empire is kind of like the next empire, the world empire, that's kind of like that's symbolic Babylon. And then you've got the iron legs, and so that's the Roman Empire, and that's like symbolic Babylon. And so some people think, well, that's why it could be Rome, because, you know. I mean, I'm just sharing the thoughts with you, right? And you say, pastor which one, pastor Kevin, which is your opinion on that? And out of those three, I really, I don't have opinion. I have a different thought on this altogether, right? Let me share what that thought is, right? And because, you know, when I see that stuff in the Bible, it's kind of like when we went for the seven churches in the book of Revelation, and God says, I hate the doctrine of the Nicolaitans. And like, everyone's trying to work out who are the Nicolaitans? You know, and they go and try to read history. What do they teach? What doctrine do they teach? And there's all different opinions as to what it, I don't think that's, you know, if God wanted us to know that detail, he would have told us. That's the view I take, usually. If I can't figure this out, just clear it from the Bible, you know, then there must be something more to it. And so when it came to that topic, I said, look, I don't think it matters. The fact is, you've got false prophets coming in, bringing in false heresies, false teaching. That's the lesson, all right? Don't allow false prophets, false apostles to come into your church and bring damnable heresies and stuff like that, things that God hates. We ought to hate false doctrine. That was the lesson there, right? So then what is this about? The church that is at Babylon, I sort of take a similar view. I don't think the location is the point. I think people that argue about the location are totally missing the point, okay? What is the point? Well, go back to 1 Peter chapter one in verse number one, 1 Peter chapter one, verse number one. Let's just remind ourselves of, again, another major theme of this book, right? 1 Peter chapter one, verse number one, it says, Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout, okay? That's the first thing. This was written to strangers, believers. You're throughout, you're throughout the world, in a sense, right? Now go to chapter two, 1 Peter chapter two, verse 11. 1 Peter chapter two, verse 11 says, dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstrained from fleshly lust, which war against the soul. And so what I think, what I believe, Peter signing off here, is saying, hey, not that he's literally in Babylon, not that it's important where his church is located, but wherever his church is located, it's Babylon, okay? New Life Baptist Church is in Babylon, okay? Blessed Hope Baptist Church down in Sydney is in Babylon. The Sunshine Coast is our Babylon. So what is that about? Yes, symbolic, because what was Babylon? Babylon was the empire that took the southern kingdom into captivity and the Jews were scattered throughout the empire, right? They were strangers, they were pilgrims, they were sojourners, this wasn't their world, this wasn't their land. They were going about living a life which was totally separate and different from the people of that world, of that land. And so what I believe the church in Babylon is, is just a reminder, hey, the world is Babylon. No matter where the world is, just scattered throughout, we're in Babylon, this is not our world. This is not our, you know, this is not what we live for. We're thinking about eternal matters, we're thinking about the spiritual kingdom of God. And that's what I truly believe. He starts with that, hey, you're strangers, he reminds you, you're foreigners, hey, we're in Babylon as well, okay? We're scattered, this is not where God wants us to be ultimately, ultimately, yeah, we will eventually find ourselves in heaven with the Lord God. I believe that's the lesson there, is remind ourselves that this is Babylon, okay? This is our Babylon. The Sunshine Coast is Babylon for us. Verse number 14, greet ye one another with a kiss of charity. Peace be with you, all that are in Christ Jesus, amen. I love that, right? Greet one another with a kiss of charity. And if you can just go back to chapter four, verse number eight, we're almost done now. First Peter chapter four, verse number eight. He finishes the epistle with the most important lesson he's got in the whole book, all right? Which was in verse number eight, and above all things, the most important thing in this epistle, have fervent charity among yourselves, for charity shall cover the multitude of sins. And so that's how he finishes off the epistle. Greet ye one another with a kiss of charity. Hey, don't forget to love each other, okay? Don't forget to have that fervent love for one another. Hey, greet one another, we don't give the kiss, right? I mean, if I was in Chile, you go to church, everyone's gonna be kissing you. You Aussies will be uncomfortable, right? But listen, you know, we do the handshakes or whatever, I don't know, fist pump, I don't know, I don't know. It's the handshakes, that's what we normally do, right? In our society. You know, let's make sure that we do love each other, we do greet one another. We make sure that, hey, we welcome each other to serve the Lord Jesus Christ in our local church. Let's pray.