How to Have a Happy Ending
I Peter 5:6-10
I love happy endings.
Peter was concerned about a "happy ending" too.
a. Persecution of the early church.
b. Doing what is right is hard in any generation (them, us).
Imagine him as he finished his letter. "What can I say to help to keep them from giving up and ruining their lives?"
Peter said that Christians needed to do four things to have a happy ending.
To have a happy ending you must:
Humble yourselves before God (vs.6).
A. To be humble is to be submissive.
1. To be obedient; to accept the fact there is one greater than self.
2. Pride makes us want to walk our own way, "Do it my way."
B. The reason for humility is given here:
1. God’s hand is mighty! He is greater than we are!
2. He made us. He owns us. He knows us the best and loves us the most.
3. He therefore, has the right to direct our lives.
C. Therefore we will accept God’s will for our lives.
1. Life is very unfair!
2. But "He will exalt you in due time!" Heaven will surely be worth it all!
D. In addition that means we will accept God’s right to make rules for us.
1. We may question God’s rules and even ask why does it have to be this way.
2. But if we are humble we will recognize that it is God’s responsibility to make the rules, and we must not question but obey.
Cast your cares on God (7).
E. He tells he first century church, "Cast your care on God."
F. Us?
1. We too have troubles- financial, family, personal.
2. We sometimes don’t know which way to turn, don’t know the answer but Peter says, "Cast your care on God."
3. "Let go and let God!"
4. Story of little boy whose father gives him a hard job to do. "Have you tried everything?"
Be sober and watchful (8).
G. We need to be serious-minded (use your head) and alert. Why?
1. Satan!
2. He is very real and very powerful.
3. He wants us to go to hell and comes to tempt us everyday.
4. He is not the horned, red, tailed creature of the movies but he is in the everyday things of life where he tries to make us think of self instead of being submissive to God’s will.
a. Selfishness is the number one reason for sin.
b. "This is what I want and I will have it!" Satan laughs with glee.
H. What would Satan be doing in context of this passage?
1. "Christian living is too hard give up."
2. "Is this the kind of life you want?
3. "You can’t help it, go ahead and do it."
4. "What about YOUR happiness?"
5. "Look at the rest of the world, they don’t follow God and look how happy they are."
6. Look how Satan tried to tempt the writer of Psalms 73.
a. Verses 1-3.
b. Notice how he describes the prosperity and happiness of the wicked in verse 4-14.
c. What was the solution? (15-28)
Resist and remain faithful (8).
I. Jas. 4:7
J. What does it mean to resist the Devil?
1. Don’t give in to him. Don’t let him win. Don’t let him have your soul.
2. Instead you remain steadfast in the faith.
3. Verse 12 reminds us to make a stand – "Wherein ye stand."
K. "But I can’t it is too hard!"
1. That is the Devil talking.
2. Others have and you can too.
a. "Knowing that…"
b. You are not the first one to deal with this.
L. How strong is your faith?
1. How you act on a sunny day will not give you the answer.
2. Rather it is how you act when the day is dark, when Satan is throwing everything at you he has, when it is taking every once of your being to do the right thing because what you want is not what God wants. Then and only then will you find out how strong your faith is.
M. Joe Louis was asked, "How does one become a champion fighter?" He answered, "Just fight one more round than your opponent."
1. In other words, DO NOT GIVE UP!
2. Whatever the persecution, whatever the temptation, whatever your foolish pride tells you, don’t you ever give up! Stand firm in the faith.
These are the things you need to do to have a "happy ending". (Review)
If we do these what will be the result? Verse 10.
James Pharr
Lenoir, NC