This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

Welcome back for day three of our look through 1 Peter chapter five. These last
few days we've looked at part one of what it means to have the heart of a
leader. You got to lead like a shepherd.

You got to have the heart of a shepherd. Now as we turn towards verse five,
we're going to take a look at part two of the heart of a leader. Listen to
verses five and six.

Young men, in the same way be submissive to those who are older. All of you,
clothe yourselves with humility towards one another because God opposes the
proud but gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore under God's
mighty hand that he may lift you up in due time.

If I'm going to lead like Christ, I got to be like Christ and Jesus was humble
and so I have to have a heart of humility to lead like Christ. Now notice in
verse five, this attitude begins before your leadership even begins. Young men,
be submissive to those who are older.

You learn the attitude of humility as a follower. That's where it starts. And
there's that word again, be submissive.

In all of our relationships, it is the driving key, this willful decision to
give up part of myself for the sake of somebody else. He's already told us,
Peter's already told us to submit to governing authorities, to slaves, to
masters, to, he's told wives to husbands, husbands to wives, we've got to submit
to each other. But now he sums it all up here by telling us all to submit to
God.

That's the pinnacle that he's been leading to all along. I humble myself under
God's mighty hand that I can live in humility in all of my relationships with
others. So he says in humbling yourself under God's mighty hand, you want to
clothe yourself with humility in all of your relationships.

Now that word, clothes, it has a couple of meanings in the Greek language. It
has the idea of a garment tied with a knot. So one of the ideas behind it is an
apron that's worn by a servant.

The apron of humility will one day become the garment of honor. Those who wash
feet, we're told here, will one day wear crowns when you put all together that's
in 1 Peter chapter 5. You got to be humble.

You got to have a humble heart in order to lead. And humility answers a very
important question about leadership. Humility answers the question, where do you
find the strength to lead?

You find it by clothing yourself with humility. You humble yourself under God's
mighty hand. And then look at what the Bible says.

He will lift you up. He will give you strength in due time. Now focus on those
phrases.

Under God, humble yourself under God's mighty hand. But then the phrase in due
time. Under God in due time.

That's God's plan and that's God's timing that he may lift you up. He's
providing the lift and the strength in his timing. You're not providing it.

I'm not providing it for myself. He's providing it. It comes from depending on
him daily and constantly.

You depend on him. It's like if I want to get on a jet and fly from LA to New
York, once I get on that jet, I'm depending on the jet every moment that I'm in
that jet to get from one place to the other. He's getting me there.

I'm depending on God every moment in leading and living my Christian life. He is
the one who's getting me there. Now, one of the struggles we all have is we
depend on God only when we're desperate.

Only when we really see how much we need to depend. We don't realize, because
we're on the jet, that he's the one who's taking us along. That we're up to
speed only because of him.

And it's like you get up to speed on a jet and you say, "Great, God, you got me
up to speed now. " And if you could, you open up the door and you step outside
and you say, "I'll handle it from here on my own. " Like you could fly on your
own.

You'd drop like a rock. And we've all seen that happen in our lives in following
Jesus Christ. We've seen ourselves try to depend on ourselves and all of a
sudden be so filled with ourselves that there's nothing left but ourselves.

It's a terrifying place to be. But you know what? You don't have to stay there.

God says, "You can depend on me again and in due time I will lift you up. "
Humility recognizes that sometimes you're not going to be on the front stage.
Sometimes people aren't going to be noticing you.

But that's not what you're serving for anyway. You're serving for him so that
people can notice him. So in order to lead, you have to realize that humility,
what we're talking about here, is the daily decision to do what Peter talks
about here.

To humble yourself under God's mighty hand. Humility is not putting yourself
down, it's lifting God up. The great late 19th century American pastor, Phillips
Brooks, said it this way, "The true way to be humble is not to stoop until
you're smaller than yourself, but to stand at your real height against some
higher nature that will show you the real smallness of what your greatness is.

" When you put yourself up and compare yourself with God, you see the trueness
of who you are. The result of genuine humility, it's always, always a greater
focus on God. And a greater focus on God will always lift you up.

Humility is being honest about who you are, about your strengths, about your
weaknesses. It's also being honest about who God is, about his strength, his
goodness, what he can do in your life. To encourage you in this daily struggle
that I have, that you have, we all have, to display genuine humility in our
lives.

I want to invite you maybe to grab a piece of paper and write down these four
phrases. Maybe put these someplace where you can read them several times a day.
What is humility?

Humility is not thinking less of myself, it is thinking more of others. Second,
humility is not putting myself down, it is lifting God up. Third, humility is
not denying my strengths, it is being openly honest about my weaknesses.

And fourth, humility is seeing that without Christ I can do nothing, but in
Christ I can do all things. Let me say those again. Humility is not thinking
less of myself, it is thinking more of others.

Humility is not putting myself down, it is lifting God up. Humility is not
denying my strengths, it's being openly honest about my weaknesses. Humility is
seeing that without Christ I can do nothing, but in Christ I can do all things.

So you take those phrases, those truths, and with those truths in mind you do
two simple things. As you go through your day, you admit that you're proud and
you act humble. You admit that you're proud.

Who doesn't struggle with pride? I certainly do. So just admit it, I struggle
with pride.

Pride constantly invades our thoughts and too often it guides our words and our
reactions. So you admit, I struggle with pride. You admit that you struggle with
pride and then you act humble.

You don't wait until you feel humble, you just choose to act humble. Some people
think, "Isn't that being hypocritical? " No, it's being obedient.

God commands you to act with humility. So it's the right decision no matter how
you might be feeling. In fact, I'd encourage you, don't try to feel humble.

Humility is not aware of itself and if you're trying to feel humble, you're
going to become so aware of yourself that you're not going to be humble anymore.
Here's the trap that we can fall into. You try to feel humble and then you start
to feel a little humble and then you get proud of the fact that you feel a
little humble and you're not humble anymore.

So don't try to feel humble. It's spiritual quicksand. Just act humble.

Humility is throwing your selfishness away and complete concern for somebody
else. Act humble. Now, pride is ugly.

It would be simple to allow yourself to wallow in discouragement over what
you've suffered in the past because of your pride. And right now, as I talk
about humility, to focus on how your pride has hurt you. That's where Satan
would love you to be.

Don't do it. If you do, your pride is still in the focus. Even if it's a
negative focus, your pride will still be in control as long as it's in the
focus.

If you want to be great, if you want to be a great leader, decide to act humble
and trust that God wants to do something in your life that only he can do.
Father, we pray for your strength. We can't act humble on our own.

We need the power that only you have to bring humility into our lives. We know
that through your spirit, you can give that power. We know that through Jesus,
you can give that power.

Jesus displayed the ultimate in humility. He was willing to go to a cross, not
just be born as a baby, but go to a cross for us. Thank you for his unselfish
humility.

And I pray, we pray together, that through your spirit, that humility would make
its way into our hearts, our lives, our relationships today. We pray it in
Jesus' name, amen. Join us tomorrow.

We're going to talk about the daily habit that every leader must have.