Fight to the Finish

00:02 I want to greet you this morning in the name of Jesus and give glory to God. It is the last day... not just the last Sunday, but the last day of the year as we know it and as we record it and mark it according to calendar. And it's good to be this last day of 2023 in the house of the Lord. 00:23 I would invite you to turn in your copies of the Scriptures this morning to the book of 1 Peter. I'm going to take a time off from my series in 1 Timothy and go to 1 Peter chapter 5. 00:36 Begin reading at verse 4, kind of interrupt the thought of Peter in chapter 5 where he's talking to leaders and he's talking to leaders of a persecuted people, a persecuted church, and talking about shepherding. 00:53 And he kind of transitions from talking to leaders to talking to all of us when he says in verse 4, "And when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away. Likewise, you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. 01:16 Yes, all of you be submissive to one another and be clothed with humility, for God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon him, for he cares for you. 01:37 Be sober. Be vigilant because your adversary, the devil, walks about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. Resist him. Steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world. 01:54 But may the God of all grace who called us to his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you. To him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. 02:12 Amen." As I was pondering this week as to what one could share, what could be shared, and should be shared in relation to a new year and the closing out of a year and the beginning of another year, my attention was drawn to 1 Peter chapter 5 and my own personal Bible reading. 02:33 And this jumped out at me as being a good transition message because oftentimes I think about the passing of a year and you think about the beginning of a new year and you say, "I wonder what's going to happen this year?" And I've been saying it for probably every year, almost every year since I've been in the ministry, 02:52 that I fully expect the Lord to return in this next year. 02:56 But if he doesn't, if he doesn't, I can guarantee you, I can guarantee this in verse 8, that your adversary, the devil, will be working and he will be prowling and he will be roaming and he will 03:14 be roving like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. And until the Lord returns for us, either by death or by rapture, we will continue to need to resist them and to be steadfast in the faith. 03:31 And so I thought this was an appropriate passage to kind of go after this morning about fighting to the finish. And if you notice on the back of your bulletin this morning, I have an outline there for you. If you want to take notes, you're welcome to. If you want to throw them away when you're done, you're welcome to. If you want to keep them, you're welcome to. 03:51 Do whatever helps you listen and stay engaged and understand because the theme of the message, the purpose of the message this morning is to encourage some soul to remain engaged in the battle, to encourage somebody here this morning, if not all of us, 04:10 to stay engaged in the battle of the Christian life. Now he refers here in verse 8 about being vigilant because your adversary, the devil, walks about like a roaring lion. So I did a little research, a little study on why a lion would roar. 04:31 And so children, here's your little science lesson for the week before you go back to school again. 04:37 A number of reasons why a lion would roar and thinking about a lion's roar, a lion's roar can be heard up to five miles away. And if you were right up close to a lion, it would possibly reach 114 decibels at a distance of one meter. 04:57 Wow, that's almost a mile away. 114 decibels. And the pain threshold for the human ear is 110 decibels. And so you could actually not only have an emotionally frightening experience, but a physically frightening or physically painful one as well. 05:18 They are territorial in their calls. They need a defined space in which to hunt, raise their cubs, and find food and water. And roaring helps them establish and defend these territories. Now keep that one in mind. It has to do with territorialism. And then coordination. 05:41 Roaring helps them coordinate their actions if they're in a pack of lions or a pride of lions, as it's called, and they're going after a hunt and preying in upon something. That roaring can help them identify with others in their group and keep in touch with one another, ensuring they remain coordinated throughout the hunt. 06:02 Roaring also has the idea of a mating call and that you can call. 06:08 And as a male lion, the stronger, the louder, the more forceful strength that is portrayed in his roar gives the females an idea that he's strong and has the ability to protect and provide for them and their offspring. The more resonant, 06:29 louder, and louder the roar, the more likely it is to draw in potential mates. Roaring can indicate dominance, submission, territorial disputes, and mating behaviors. And so roaring also has a fear factor. A fear factor. 06:49 I'm told that a lion does not necessarily roar when he's pursuing prey. He roars when he's got the prey ready to pounce and ready to go in for the kill. He doesn't want to scare things away. He wants to frighten them. He wants to paralyze them. 07:09 He wants to exercise dominion and domination over his enemies. This is similar to the enemy of our soul who seeks to devour. He seeks to devour. He doesn't seek to encourage. He's not seeking to strengthen you. 07:29 He's seeking to devour you. And he prowls. The word that walks there can be translated prowling. He prowls about like a roaring lion. When he sees what he's going after, he roars and literally paralyzes that enemy by fear and by the sheer force of his roar. 07:50 And so we have here that he can be resisted. We're thankful for that. And he is resisted by being steadfast in the faith. And so we want to look this morning at the reward and at the requirements and at the resistance. 08:11 So what is the reward? It's interesting to me that right before he talks about this battle, he's talking about reward. In verse 4, he talks about the reward of the chief shepherd. When he appears, you'll receive the crown of glory that does not fade away. 08:32 The crown of eternal glory. In verse 10, he talks about the God of strength. May the God of all grace who called us to his eternal glory be by Christ Jesus. There you have the glory in verse 4. You've got the eternal glory in verse 10. 08:47 And he talks about suffering there a while, but then he talks about being perfected and established and strengthened and settled. How many of you want to have those characteristics this next year? To be perfected, established, strengthened, and settled. Have a settledness, not a fear factor, 09:08 but strength for the journey. In verse 10, in Ephesians chapter 6, he talks about standing against the wiles of the devil. He talks about withstanding and having done all to stand, standing during the temptation, standing after the temptation. 09:28 The Bible says when Jesus was tempted and came face to face with the devil, he was alone. He was alone with him. And if his Father was with him, yes. The Holy Spirit was upon him, yes. But he was without man. 09:44 He was alone in the wilderness and for 40 days being tempted and tested and roared at by the enemy. And Jesus, when he was done with the temptation, was ministered to by the angels. Having been tempted, the angels came and ministered to him. 10:04 The Bible says in Ephesians chapter 3, verse 16, that we can be strengthened with might through his Spirit in the inner man. Be strong in the Lord. Strength is one of the rewards of faithfulness. If you run from the enemy, although there are times we're told to run from temptation, 10:25 but we are not to run necessarily in fear and in trepidation, 10:34 but we're to flee the temptation. But in the process of fleeing, we're to resist the enemy. And there is a reward of strength. In verse 5, there is a reward of grace. God resists the proud. He opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. 10:53 Grace, sustaining grace, keeping grace, overcoming grace, dying grace, all the kinds of things that you need and stand in need of, his grace is sufficient. Verse 10, may the God of all grace who called us establish you. And so there is grace for the child of God. 11:12 There is grace for us in the midst of the battle with the enemy. He gives more grace. There's divine enablement to meet whatever challenge you may face. Do you believe that today? Do you believe that God's grace is sufficient? Paul said in 2 Corinthians, no, 11:32 2 Corinthians, yes, 12, that my grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in your weakness. And so our attention today from the scriptures is not upon our weakness, but upon our strength in Christ who has said we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. 11:53 And then there is exaltation, verse 6, therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time, that he may lift you up to a place of exaltation. Of course, we know that that is not happening at this point in its full sense, but Paul talks about it in 1 Corinthians chapter 6, 12:13 verse 2, don't you know that the saints shall judge the world? That there is a coming exaltation for those who have been faithful in Christ Jesus and faithful over temptation. 12:27 Revelation chapter 3, verse 21 says to him who overcomes, I will grant to sit with me on my throne as I also overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne. Now that's a place of exaltation. Amen. That's a place of being exalted when we are invited to sit with Jesus on his throne. 12:47 That's going to be a massive throne to accommodate all the people that have been faithful through the ages. Revelation chapter 5 says, and he has made us kings and priests to our God, and we shall reign on the earth. 13:01 In his coming kingdom, there will be opportunity for him to exalt his servants and his children and his bride to reign over the nations alongside him. In John chapter 12, verse 27, if anyone serves me, him my Father will honor. 13:20 Have you thought about that? That verse is worthy of some pondering, that if any man serves me, Jesus told his disciples, him my Father will honor. To be honored by God the Father and exalted requires us to be humbled. 13:40 Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time. And so we also have then the reward of this crown of eternal glory. In verse 4, we've mentioned it, the crown of glory that does not fade away. This crown is not fading. 14:01 It's unfading. It does not lose any of its freshness, its beauty, or its luster. Now silver tarnishes, copper oxidizes and corrodes, gold loses its luster, and strength fades and glory of this world diminishes. 14:18 But this crown of glory that we are anticipating from the chief shepherd does not fade away. It doesn't lose any of its luster, doesn't lose any of its beauty, and it does not lose any of its glory because its glory is in Christ, the eternal glory of Christ Jesus and by Christ Jesus, verse 10. 14:38 Eternal glory has the idea of a perpetual state of glory. However, Jesus did warn us in Revelation chapter 3, verse 11, let no man take thy crown. And so we need to continue to press on and to press in and resist those things that need to be resisted. 15:00 So that's the reward. We start out with the reward. We end with the reward in the text. But in the middle then, there is some requirement. Some requirement. Requirement, first of all, you'll find in verse 5 and 6, humility, humbling oneself, recognizing our need for God and dare I say for others. 15:22 Now there's two dynamics to humility. One is humbling ourselves in relationship to God. And so he says, humble yourself under the mighty hand of God. 15:35 Now that's one thing, but then there is the human dynamic and the human aspect of it where we humble ourselves in relationship to others. Now how does that work? Well, he says in verse 5, you younger people submit yourselves to your elders. 15:56 Yes, all of you be submissive to one another. That takes humility, does it not? That takes humility. 16:03 So there's humility of humbling ourselves under the mighty hand of God, but then there is also the humility that is expressed then under the mighty hand of God by being in submission and in coordination and in honor of one another, especially younger to elder, but all of us to one another. 16:25 Now how well do I receive correction? That's a question I've been pondering. It seems like there was a week or so ago, a couple of weeks ago, it seemed like everything I did, I was being corrected by somebody. And I didn't feel very good. I even got corrected by the post office one day. 16:43 And I was taking stuff into the post office and got a call back at the office that you're not supposed to put it there. You're supposed to put it somewhere else. Why? I didn't know that. Nobody ever told me that before. And so I thought, well, at least they could be nice about it, you know, not rude about it. And but it touched something in me. I'd like to be corrected. 17:04 And how is that? When we humble ourselves, we take on correction. We're willing to take on correction. Who corrects you? Anybody ever correct you? Maybe you're the boss. You don't get corrected. Well, maybe you get corrected by your customer. I don't know. Who corrects you? 17:23 How is it to be corrected by a superior? We can maybe take that because he signs the paycheck. 17:29 But to be corrected by a peer or maybe even to be corrected by a subordinate or somebody that's rude or someone without my level of experience and wisdom and experience and understanding. 17:46 To be corrected, it's easy for us to just pass those things off and forget and kind of take offense at correction. But he says, humble yourselves. Submit yourselves to one another and be clothed with humility. 18:05 So humility is one of the requirements of overcoming. 18:09 The Bible says in the book of James where there's a parallel passage, it talks about God resisting the proud, giving grace unto the humble and drawn near unto me, I will draw near unto you. Humble yourselves beneath the mighty hand of God. It's a parallel passage to this passage right here. 18:29 Submission, submitting to the correction. It's one thing for us to submit to God. Yes, we want to submit to God. That's kind of a no-brainer for a Christian to submit to God. That kind of goes with the territory. But are we willing to submit to one another? Quite another to submit to man. So it's one thing to submit to God. 18:49 It's another thing to submit to man. Maybe the two are related. Maybe the two are related. So submission is a part of this getting ourselves in a position where we can resist the enemy, where we can resist the devil so that he might flee from us. 19:10 And then casting our care. In verse 7, casting all your care upon him, for he cares for you. Some translations translate that, casting all your anxieties on him because he cares for you. Oh my, do we have anxieties? Yes. 19:29 Yes, I think the technology is supposed to solve some of our anxieties, and it just intensifies it, I think. It increases some of our anxieties. 19:42 Anxieties in relationships, anxieties in schedule, anxieties in finances, anxieties in misunderstandings, anxieties at work, anxieties at home, anxieties, worry, worry, worry. It's everywhere. And if we're not careful, we'll forget that we can cast our cares on him. 20:04 And so there's this idea of 20:08 rolling our cares over onto the Lord. 20:10 Someone has said that if you're worried at night, just cast your cares on Jesus. He'll be up all night anyway, and he'll look after him. And I kind of like that idea that when I go to sleep, can I do so with my anxieties rolled onto Jesus? 20:28 Can I take my anxieties and lay them at the foot of the cross? You say, why would you lay them at the foot of the cross? Well, because sometimes anxiety can be an idol. Anxiety, worry can be an idol that we clutch onto because as if somehow my worrying would get God's attention. 20:49 And what do you do with an idol? You lay it at the cross. You repent of it. You confess it. And we need to do that with worry as well. The Bible says in Philippians chapter 4, be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, there's the key, with thanksgiving, 21:09 let your requests be made known unto God. Matthew 6:25 says, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not the life more than food and the body more than clothing? Some of you are worried right now about what you're going to have for lunch today. What am I going to make for lunch when I get home? 21:29 Wonder if the crockpot's going to burn and the stove is going to... Well, take no thought. Don't worry. Worry about those kinds of things. Jesus said that the enemy is good at snatching the word of God away from us. 21:47 The cares of this world and the deceitfulness of 21:51 riches choke the word, and we become unfruitful. The cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the world. What is the requirement beyond humility, submission, and casting of our cares? 22:09 Another requirement is found in verse 8, be sober. Be vigilant. Alertness. Be alert. Be alert to what the enemy would try to do in you. Now don't be the enemy focused. We want to be Christ-focused. 22:30 But Apostle Paul said even that we are not ignorant of his devices. So what are some of the devices that the enemy uses? He uses all kinds of devices. He works through our minds. He gives us thoughts. He can deposit thoughts in our minds. 22:50 In fact, the battle for victory is won primarily, first of all, in the mind. He works through our desires, our lusts. He works through our flesh. 23:03 He uses illegitimate ways to meet legitimate needs, but doing those in the wrong ways. He works in us through pride and arrogance. He works in us through anger and bitterness. His tactics involve rebellion, 23:24 the pleasure, the power, and the positions of the world. He works in us and through us to us through worldly philosophies and temporal values, false teachings, making something God has said appear less than what it should be. 23:46 He works in us with doubt and questioning and unbelief. He works through us by wounds that we receive from others and that we give to others. He works in us through fear and through blame and refusing to take responsibility. 24:04 And he may take and study you and find out what works best for you in that list. Sometimes people are particularly vulnerable in a particular area. And guess what? Satan knows that. 24:20 He is a master at watching people, and his demons are masters at watching people to see where their weaknesses are. And then Satan doesn't play fair. He says, why didn't he tempt me in the area where I'm strong? Well, that wouldn't work if his goal is to destroy you. 24:39 He wants to find the chink in your armor. He wants to find the weakness in your life and exploit that. And so he says, be alert. Be sober. Be diligent. What? Vigilant and watchful. 24:59 Take care of these weak areas and build them up. And part of building them up is to be in relationship with others, like we said in verse 5. So we've looked at the rewards. We've looked now at the requirements. What about the resistance? 25:19 Let's look at the resistance here. How do you resist him steadfastly? Well, first of all, we must understand what our enemy is, who he is, and what his modus operandi is. The enemy, he is called the devil. Notice here in verse 8, your adversary, the devil. 25:39 In fact, the word devil means adversary or accuser. The accuser of the brethren. He is an accuser. He is an adversary. He is called Belial or the wicked one. He's called Beelzebub, a wicked one. He is called the evil one. 25:58 He is called the god of this world. He is referred to as being a murderer and a liar and the ruler of the darkness. He is called the serpent, the tempter, an unclean spirit, and the prince of the power of the air. 26:20 He is the devil in all of his manifestations and all of his characteristics. What does he do? According to Scripture, various Scriptures, he afflicts and opposes the righteous. He slanders the saints. You realize if you slander the saints, you're participating with the enemy. 26:39 Slandering the saints. He inflicts disease. He claims authority over this world. He blinds the minds of unbelievers. He wars with the saints. He inspires lying wonders. He tempts and entices to sin. 27:00 He removes the good seed of God's truth and snatches it away from the heart. He lies and deceives as an angel of light. He prays upon people, don't pray for people. He prays, P-R-E-Y, upon people. He distorts the Scriptures, and he exercises dominion over sinners. 27:24 Be sober. Be vigilant. Be watchful because that character walks about as a roaring lion to destroy and to devour. 27:36 But I'm so thankful for verse 9, resist him steadfast in the faith. We can resist. I love this parallel passage in Ephesians 6 where it says, "And having done all to stand, 27:57 stand therefore, having your loins girded about with truth and the breastplate of righteousness and the feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, 28:16 praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit and watching thereunto with all supplication for all the saints." Steadfastness. Be ye steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord for as much as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. 28:36 These things do make a difference. He says, be steadfast. Resist him and be steadfast. To be steadfast means to be firm, solid, or hard. Now that doesn't mean we're to be hard-hearted, but we are to be hardened soldiers of the Lord. 28:57 Someone has said we need tough skin and a tender heart. We need to be strong and established. And what's interesting is you're to be established, and then as you come out of that temptation and that resisting, you'll be established and strengthened and settled. 29:16 Shouldn't verse 10 come before verse 8? Well, I think what it is is that in the process of standing, we get strengthened and we get empowered. You're not empowered to run. You're empowered to stand. And as you stand and resist, 29:40 you get more strength and more established and more perfected and more settled 29:48 as you exercise yourself unto godliness. To resist means to withstand, to oppose, and do this by faith. By faith. 30:00 Now there's an interesting translation issue in verse 9, resist him steadfast in the faith. Some translations translate this steadfast in your faith. But what is it? Steadfast in the faith or your faith? 30:20 Well, probably both. We stand by faith in the finished work of Christ. Now this brings us to ponder a bit on how one resists. 30:40 You resist by faith. You resist by faith. And there's a two-pronged aspect of resisting by faith, your faith, the faith, both in the faith that's been delivered to the saints and your faith in that that you have embraced in Christ. 31:02 But there is an aspect of resting and trusting in Christ. So it's not how well we defend ourselves, but how well Christ defends us and how well we rest and trust in that. 31:21 Sometimes we think that this resisting has the idea that I'm going to get all worked up inside, and I'm just going to just kind of blow up and explode because I've got to resist, resist, resist, resist. And it all belongs to me. It all feels like it takes all my effort to resist. To that person, 31:40 we would just say the part of resisting is trusting. A good part of resisting is trusting. Rolling those cares onto the Lord Jesus Christ, laying those cares at the foot of the cross, those idols. The battle, the Bible says, God told Israel over and over, 31:59 the battle belongs to the Lord. It is not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord. And so there is an aspect where we are to stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. 32:15 But then there's the other aspect in this two-pronged resistance where I do take every thought captive, where I am responsible to do something about resisting. It's not resting in the Lord and trusting in the Lord. 32:34 It's not about sitting back in my spiritual easy chair and just thinking that God's going to do it all. There is an aspect of activity, and there is an aspect of rest, a restful activity, a working faith. And you only kind of know what that feels like as you go into it. 32:56 So on the one hand, we engage with the enemy by taking every thought captive, by reading the Scripture, memorizing Scripture, quoting Scripture, prayer, prayer requests, 33:11 leaning on others and requesting others to pray for us and to walk with us and all of those things that we think about as being necessary for spiritual growth and maturity and for fighting the battle. 33:27 And then there's the aspect of resting and trusting in Christ that it belongs to Him. 33:34 And sometimes I just have to, in the midst of my resisting and fighting with the enemy, I have to just sometimes take a step back and say, "Lord, Lord, really, it's Your responsibility to take care of me. 33:53 It's Your responsibility to take care of me." And so somewhere in there is a balance between fighting the good fight of faith and resting and reminding myself and God that this battle belongs to the Lord. I'm going to give you five things real quickly here to consider in Lion Country. 34:15 This is not an original with me. I borrowed it from a website called Family Life. And so I'll give them credit for it this morning. I don't know who the specific author is. But in going into Lion Country, so you'll be in Lion Country probably sometime this year. You'll be in Lion Country. 34:36 So going into Lion Country, number one, stand firm. We have God's assurance that we will not lose the war. And you have absolutely nothing to be afraid of. Fear not. I'm told that there are 365 fear knots in the Bible, one for every day of the year. 34:56 I don't know if you get the leap year, just reuse one that you used before. 365. "Fear not, for I am with thee," said the Lord. "I will strengthen thee. I will help thee. I will uphold thee with my righteous right hand." Fear not. 35:13 Stand firm that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil and having done all to stand. Number two, let God's word be your guide through Lion Country. And don't wait until you get lost in Lion Country to start studying the Scriptures. 35:34 Don't wait. Study to show yourself approved unto God. "Workman in need is not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee. Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto according to thy word." Get with it now. 35:56 Now is the time to prepare to do battle. "Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might," Ephesians 6 says. That is, in the Greek, a command of repeated and continuous action. 36:12 Be being strong and in the power of the might of the Lord. Put on the whole armor of God. That's a command with a simple action. Put it on and do it now. Don't wait until you get into Lion Country and the lion is roaring and saying, "Oh, let's see. 36:34 Let's see. I should have had my prayer time this morning." Or I should have, let's see, what is that verse that I should have memorized that I should have used to combat this temptation? Do it now. Be prepared. Don't go into battle with your civilian clothes. Go in with the armor of God. Number three, prayer. 36:56 Pray always and give thanks frequently. "Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit and watching thereunto with all supplication for all saints." And then Paul said, "And pray for me." And so he not only admonished people to pray, he requested prayer. 37:18 And there is totally appropriate to do both, admonishing people to pray and requesting prayer. Paul had prayer requests. "And for me, that utterance may be given to me that I may open my mouth boldly to speak as I ought to speak." So he wanted prayer. He wanted prayer. Pray for faithfulness. 37:39 Pray for faithfulness. Give thanks. Give thanks. For the Bible says, "Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. And in everything, give thanks." That again is a command for continuous repeated action. Rejoice evermore. 38:00 Pray without ceasing. In everything, give thanks. Number four, know that no temptation is to be taken lightly. Do not take temptation lightly. Sin is deadly. This enemy wants to devour. He wants to destroy. He wants to disrupt. 38:22 And if he could, I'm fully convinced, dear people, that if Satan could and if God let him, his desire would be to destroy every living child of God. In fact, there are those that are looking around and seeing what's happening in technology, 38:41 wondering if it's not his desire to just destroy people altogether, completely. Anything that will resist him is in his crosshairs. So don't take temptation lightly. Tell the truth and then speak kindly to one another. 39:01 That's all under point four. Second Timothy chapter two says, "And the servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all men apt to teach, patient in meekness, instructing those that oppose themselves, that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil who are taken captive by him at his will." You see, 39:22 there are a certain number of people that are taken captive by the enemy, and they're in the snare of the devil. They are living under the dominion of Satan. 39:29 And we are to attempt to rescue them in meekness, humility, patient, and teaching, warning, and trying to deliver them through repentance to the acknowledging of the truth. And number five, 39:50 walk by faith, not by feelings. Walk by faith, not by feelings. And not by what you can see. This writer goes on to say that God's word and His promises are either 100% true or they are not true at all. Think about it. How do you know you can trust God's word? 40:12 Well, I think I can trust 50% of it, 60%, 70%, 80%. If you can't trust God's word 100%, then you probably can't trust it at all. And so to trust God's word, His promises, those exceeding great and precious promises, since His word is true, 40:32 your faith is what makes the difference, either believing that and resting in it and trusting in it and walking in it or trying to do things in our own strength. Grab a hold of His word and step out. For the Bible says, "We walk by faith, not by sight." Good words here. 40:54 Be sober. Be vigilant. Resist Him. Steadfast in the faith. Know, brothers and sisters, that nothing that you will experience this year is unusual when it comes to temptation. "There is no temptation taken you, but such as is common to man. But God is faithful, 41:13 who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able, but will make a way of escape, but with the temptation, make a way of escape that you may be able to bear it." Now, as I bring this message to a close this morning, there's something I want you to notice. One of the primary reasons that a lion roars, 41:34 there's the fear factor, yes, and the domination factor, yes, and all the other factors that we mentioned. 41:42 But one of the primary reasons a lion roars is to mark out his territory, to let the other lions, the opponents, know that this territory belongs to this lion, to assert domination and dominion. 42:03 Now, I want you to look at verse 11. "To Him," that is the God of all grace, "who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, to Him be the glory and the dominion." The dominion is God's dominion, 42:25 not Satan's dominion. He wants to roar, making you think that you are subject to His dominion when we know better that we are under the authority and dominion of Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God. First John chapter 5, 42:46 verse 19 says, "We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one." This is His dominion, His domain, this world around us. 43:02 But we are citizens of another kingdom, the dominion of Jesus, the authority of Jesus, and not under the authority of Satan. We don't live under that authority anymore. 43:19 Contrast His roar. When I saw this, I just really rejoiced. 43:25 The dominion-seeking roar of the destructive lion versus the dominion, which is forever and ever, of the God of all grace and Jesus Christ, His Son. To hold fast. 43:47 This speaks of force and strength and might and dominion. This word, Kratos, dominion in verse 11, has not so much to do with the exercise of power, but the significance and the presence of power. 44:07 So without even having to exercise His power, merely by showing up, God's power exudes dominion. It's like the little boy who kept getting beat up on the playground. He got beat up, beat up, beat up. 44:25 He wasn't big enough to stand against the bullies. One day, his big brother found out that his little brother was getting beat up every day on the playground. And so guess what? Big brother went with him, and big brother was big. And all big brother had to do was show up, and dominion changed. 44:47 So it is with Jesus. 44:50 Just by virtue of showing up, He exudes. He emanates. I don't know what other word to use, but out of Him just flows dominion and power. I close with an illustration here this morning to let you know how serious this is. 45:11 How many of you have ever heard of Joe Taft? Joe Taft has an organization that takes—it's called EFRC, and that stands for something. 45:27 He's in Indiana, down in Hoosier, and he takes in wild animals that have been forsaken. So somebody may be trying to raise a tiger. Some states, I guess, that's legal. And they get to the point where they can't raise it anymore because between the time it's a little harmless, 45:47 playful cub and about one-year-old where it becomes a monster, they're very unpredictable. And in his case, he takes in mostly felines. That's what the F stands for, EFR, Emergency Feline Rescue Center. I'd like to go sometime. 46:07 It's down west of Indianapolis. He's got a website. He's got all kinds of pictures of—he takes in these rescue animals. Maybe a zoo or a game preserve loses their license or has to shut down. He'll take them in and give them a home for the rest of their life. Well, 46:26 Joe Taft was raising one of these cubs in his home, a tiger cub. And it was a boisterous, a wild thing, growing bigger and bigger every day. And Joe was used to working with animals and creatures like that. He could contain it. 46:39 He could calm it and keep it under control until Joe ended up having to have five bypass surgeries. And then he could no longer take care of this tiger cub. 46:56 And I am told and read that he was subject to being in the cage in his own house. What he did was in his hospital bed, he had to be in the cage instead of the tiger being in the cage. 47:13 And he actually looked out through the bars to see the tiger exercising dominion in his house, in his own house. Now, why he didn't just get rid of the thing, I don't know. Maybe there's some reason for that the story didn't tell. But it is an example for us. 47:34 You don't let the devil, the roaring lion in the house, have dominion. You kick him out, and you do it while he's small, not when he's big. So let that be a lesson for us, 47:56 lest we in our own hearts and minds end up being the one imprisoned and in the cage. Let's pray. Lord, thank You for this admonition from Your word this morning. We want to be alert. We want to be sober-minded. 48:14 We want to take this seriously because we know there's a reward coming, a crown of glory, an eternal crown of glory. There is strength. There is grace. There is responsibility. And there is an enemy who we need not fear, 48:33 but we must respect and deal wisely with in our ability to resist Him. And so, Lord, whatever we face in 2024, may we do so without worry, without fear. 48:53 And even if we end up in lion country where we're neck and neck looking at the lion, eyeball to eyeball, be with us, protect us. 49:08 Send Him to flight and destroy the destroyer and devour the devourer and bind the strong man through Your great strength, who has all glory and honor and power and dominion. In Jesus' name, Amen.