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When Life's A Lemon
Text: 1 Peter 5:6-11
¶ 6 Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, in order that he may lift you up at the right time,
7 casting all your worries upon him, because he cares for you.
¶ 8 Be self-controlled! Be on the alert! Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.
9 Resist him firm in the faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being laid upon your brothers in the world.
10 And the God of all grace, the One who called you to his eternal glory in Christ Jesus, after you have suffered for a little while, will Himself make you complete, firm, strong, established.
11 To him be the power forever and ever! Amen!
Sermon:
Have you ever eaten a lemon? If so, you know it is very sour and bitter. It puckers your mouth and makes you wince. Sometimes our life is like a lemon -- bitter.
About twenty-five years ago I remember a man had painted lemons all over his new car along with the name of the car dealer from whom he had purchased it. The lemons told everyone his car was a lemon. It was no good. It gave him nothing but trouble. It made his life sour and bitter and miserable.
As we go through life we learn that sometimes life is a lemon -- sour, bitter, a troubled time that makes us suffer and miserable. Those times weigh down our heart and give us a sad face. When such a time comes upon you, what does God tell you to do? Find out from 1 Peter 5:6-11.
The apostle Peter wrote the words of this text around A.D. 62-64 to Christians who were scattered throughout what is now the country of Turkey. They were being persecuted, slandered, and insulted for believing in Jesus and God’s Word. Their suffering made their lives bitter and sour. Their life was a lemon. Peter said their suffering was a fiery ordeal for the testing of their faith.
When your life’s a lemon, when you are suffering persecution for your faith or hard times or ill health, remember it is a time when your gracious God is testing your faith. Will you continue to trust in him and his Word and promises? Or, will you turn against him and blame him for what you are suffering?
Peter wrote to encourage those first century Christians in their faith when they were suffering such bitter times. At the beginning of his letter he told them that they had been born spiritually to a living hope.
When your life’s a lemon, remember that by the power of the Spirit through the Word of God you were born spiritually to a living hope. We all are sinful people who have disobeyed God’s commandments. We have sinned against the first and greatest commandment every time we have complained about the sour, bitter times we experience, rather than put our trust in God and his promises and accept what he has sent us in life. For all of our sins, including our sins of not trusting in God when life’s a lemon, we deserve to be punished by God in hell forever.
But we who believe in Jesus have been spiritually born to a living hope. We are confident that God has given us eternal life in heaven. For God laid all our sins on Jesus and punished him by putting him to death in our place. God then raised Jesus from the dead as the proof that our sins had been paid for and we also will live eternally. So when your life’s a lemon, remember that no matter what happens to you on earth, you have this living hope of God’s gift of eternal life and salvation in heaven through Jesus Christ. This living hope will encourage you to face the bitter times of life and to endure them.
Having been born to this living hope, consider in verses 6 and 7 what Peter told the suffering Christians, whose lives were bitter. He told them: “Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, in order that he may lift you up at the right time, casting all your worries upon him, because he cares for you.” When your life’s a lemon and bitter with suffering, do what Peter said to do -- humble yourself under God’s mighty hand.
When your life’s a lemon, you need to come to grips with God. God has a hand in sending you what you suffer and when. That suffering makes your life bitter and your face sad. Your proud sinful nature resents those chastisements of suffering and wants to grumble about them. Instead of grumbling, however, humble yourself under God’s mighty hand. To humble yourself means to lower yourself beneath God and let God be God to do what he does in your life by his almighty power. Yield to God and his will that you should suffer. Accept the suffering and bitterness of life as a testing of your faith for your good. Lower yourself in this way under God, so at the proper time he will lift up your spirit with the living hope of his love and goodness in Christ, by which you are saved from hell and will be delivered from all suffering in the future.
When your life’s a lemon and you are suffering bitter days, your mind, like everyone else's, worries about this or that. At such times Peter urges you to cast all your worries upon God, because he cares for you. Whatever bothers you and worries you, cast them all upon God’s almighty, broad shoulders and do not worry about them again. As the old adage goes: “Let go--let God.” Let go of your concerns and let God take care of them. You will then learn that God cares for you. He takes a personal interest in you and all that happens to you. He will care for you and bring you through those sour days of life.
When your life’s a lemon there is someone else you must reckon with -- the devil. Look at what verse 8 says about the devil. “Be self-controlled! Be on the alert! Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.”
When your life’s a lemon, you need to be self-controlled, clear minded, and on the alert. For the devil is your enemy. He is like a roaring lion. He is enraged with a blinding anger to destroy all of us whom he can in the short time he has left before his own destruction. He schemes how he can terrorize your soul to make your life miserable, to destroy your faith in God and his promises, and to see you condemned to hell with him.. He rejoices when he can pull some Christian soul like yours down into his kingdom of hopelessness and condemnation.
The devil schemes how he can ensnare you into sins, false beliefs, and feelings of hopelessness with lies, half-truths, and deceit. When your life’s a lemon, he sees an opportunity to devour you. He then attacks by trying to raise doubts in your mind about the goodness and faithfulness of God. He will plant thoughts in your mind like: “Does God really love you and care for you? Then why has he brought this suffering into your life? Why has he made you so miserable? God has done this to you, not because he loves you, but because he hates you, the terrible sinner you are. And if you think this suffering is bad, wait until he casts you into hell! Then you will really find out what suffering is. You’re a fool to trust in a God who hates you because of your sins and makes you so miserable.”
When your life’s a lemon and the devil is seeking to devour you, Peter says in the first half of verse 9, “Resist him firm in the faith.” What must you do? Resist the devil! Take a stand against him by remaining firm in your faith in God and his Word. So by faith say to the devil: “Devil, I know God loves me. In Hebrews 12:6 it is written: “For the one whom the Lord loves he disciplines, and he scourges every son whom he receives as his own.” So contrary to what you say, devil, the more God makes me miserable, the more I know he loves me. Don’t tell me he hates me because I am a sinner. He loves me so much that he gave his own Son Jesus on the cross as the payment for my sins. He does not, therefore, hold my sins against me. He has forgiven my sins. So don’t try to scare me by telling me God is angry with me because of my sins. You are a liar, devil; the father of lies. You cannot tell the truth. So the more you say God is angry with me about my sins, the more I know you are lying and that the truth is my sins are forgiven.”
Resist the devil. Some years ago I was feeling ill at ease. My mind was being troubled with doubts about God, his love for me, and my relationship with him because of my sins. I suddenly suspected the devil was troubling my mind. Since I knew that the devil could not read my thoughts like our all-knowing God can and does, I said out loud, so the devil could hear me: “Devil, in the name of Jesus I tell you to go away and leave me alone. Stop troubling me. Go on. Get out of here!” Do you know what happened? Immediately the nagging thoughts and doubts stopped. A feeling of peace flowed over me. Since then I have told other Christians to do the same thing when they are being troubled. Some of them have told me they have had the same result. Try it. It works. Look at what God promises us in James 4:7: “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” So resist the devil. Tell him to go away. And he will run away!
When your life’s a lemon, you, like us all, are also tempted to think you are the only lonesome stranger who is going through such trials of life and suffering. You then feel isolated and discouraged. But the end of verse 9 says: “. . . know that the same kinds of suffering are being laid upon your brothers in the world.” You are not alone. Your fellow Christians are suffering, just as you are. They are going through the same kind of trials and troubles and are enduring them by resisting the devil. Knowing you are not alone will comfort you and strengthen you to resist the devil and to go on as well.
Look at the comfort verse 10 gives you. Peter wrote: “And the God of all grace, the One who called you to his eternal glory in Christ Jesus, after you have suffered for a little while, will Himself make you complete, firm, strong, established.” Our gracious God himself, after you have suffered for a little while, will make you complete, firmly fixed, strong, and established so you are preserved and win out. He has the power to do this for you, as well as to bring the suffering into your life. This is why Peter ended this text with the hymn of praise in verse 11: “To him be the power forever and ever. Amen.”
So when life’s a lemon and you have a sad face, yield to God and resist the devil. God will lift up your spirit and make you glad you did.
Amen.
¶ 6 Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, in order that he may lift you up at the right time,
7 casting all your worries upon him, because he cares for you.
¶ 8 Be self-controlled! Be on the alert! Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.
9 Resist him firm in the faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being laid upon your brothers in the world.
10 And the God of all grace, the One who called you to his eternal glory in Christ Jesus, after you have suffered for a little while, will Himself make you complete, firm, strong, established.
11 To him be the power forever and ever! Amen!
Sermon:
Have you ever eaten a lemon? If so, you know it is very sour and bitter. It puckers your mouth and makes you wince. Sometimes our life is like a lemon -- bitter.
About twenty-five years ago I remember a man had painted lemons all over his new car along with the name of the car dealer from whom he had purchased it. The lemons told everyone his car was a lemon. It was no good. It gave him nothing but trouble. It made his life sour and bitter and miserable.
As we go through life we learn that sometimes life is a lemon -- sour, bitter, a troubled time that makes us suffer and miserable. Those times weigh down our heart and give us a sad face. When such a time comes upon you, what does God tell you to do? Find out from 1 Peter 5:6-11.
The apostle Peter wrote the words of this text around A.D. 62-64 to Christians who were scattered throughout what is now the country of Turkey. They were being persecuted, slandered, and insulted for believing in Jesus and God’s Word. Their suffering made their lives bitter and sour. Their life was a lemon. Peter said their suffering was a fiery ordeal for the testing of their faith.
When your life’s a lemon, when you are suffering persecution for your faith or hard times or ill health, remember it is a time when your gracious God is testing your faith. Will you continue to trust in him and his Word and promises? Or, will you turn against him and blame him for what you are suffering?
Peter wrote to encourage those first century Christians in their faith when they were suffering such bitter times. At the beginning of his letter he told them that they had been born spiritually to a living hope.
When your life’s a lemon, remember that by the power of the Spirit through the Word of God you were born spiritually to a living hope. We all are sinful people who have disobeyed God’s commandments. We have sinned against the first and greatest commandment every time we have complained about the sour, bitter times we experience, rather than put our trust in God and his promises and accept what he has sent us in life. For all of our sins, including our sins of not trusting in God when life’s a lemon, we deserve to be punished by God in hell forever.
But we who believe in Jesus have been spiritually born to a living hope. We are confident that God has given us eternal life in heaven. For God laid all our sins on Jesus and punished him by putting him to death in our place. God then raised Jesus from the dead as the proof that our sins had been paid for and we also will live eternally. So when your life’s a lemon, remember that no matter what happens to you on earth, you have this living hope of God’s gift of eternal life and salvation in heaven through Jesus Christ. This living hope will encourage you to face the bitter times of life and to endure them.
Having been born to this living hope, consider in verses 6 and 7 what Peter told the suffering Christians, whose lives were bitter. He told them: “Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, in order that he may lift you up at the right time, casting all your worries upon him, because he cares for you.” When your life’s a lemon and bitter with suffering, do what Peter said to do -- humble yourself under God’s mighty hand.
When your life’s a lemon, you need to come to grips with God. God has a hand in sending you what you suffer and when. That suffering makes your life bitter and your face sad. Your proud sinful nature resents those chastisements of suffering and wants to grumble about them. Instead of grumbling, however, humble yourself under God’s mighty hand. To humble yourself means to lower yourself beneath God and let God be God to do what he does in your life by his almighty power. Yield to God and his will that you should suffer. Accept the suffering and bitterness of life as a testing of your faith for your good. Lower yourself in this way under God, so at the proper time he will lift up your spirit with the living hope of his love and goodness in Christ, by which you are saved from hell and will be delivered from all suffering in the future.
When your life’s a lemon and you are suffering bitter days, your mind, like everyone else's, worries about this or that. At such times Peter urges you to cast all your worries upon God, because he cares for you. Whatever bothers you and worries you, cast them all upon God’s almighty, broad shoulders and do not worry about them again. As the old adage goes: “Let go--let God.” Let go of your concerns and let God take care of them. You will then learn that God cares for you. He takes a personal interest in you and all that happens to you. He will care for you and bring you through those sour days of life.
When your life’s a lemon there is someone else you must reckon with -- the devil. Look at what verse 8 says about the devil. “Be self-controlled! Be on the alert! Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.”
When your life’s a lemon, you need to be self-controlled, clear minded, and on the alert. For the devil is your enemy. He is like a roaring lion. He is enraged with a blinding anger to destroy all of us whom he can in the short time he has left before his own destruction. He schemes how he can terrorize your soul to make your life miserable, to destroy your faith in God and his promises, and to see you condemned to hell with him.. He rejoices when he can pull some Christian soul like yours down into his kingdom of hopelessness and condemnation.
The devil schemes how he can ensnare you into sins, false beliefs, and feelings of hopelessness with lies, half-truths, and deceit. When your life’s a lemon, he sees an opportunity to devour you. He then attacks by trying to raise doubts in your mind about the goodness and faithfulness of God. He will plant thoughts in your mind like: “Does God really love you and care for you? Then why has he brought this suffering into your life? Why has he made you so miserable? God has done this to you, not because he loves you, but because he hates you, the terrible sinner you are. And if you think this suffering is bad, wait until he casts you into hell! Then you will really find out what suffering is. You’re a fool to trust in a God who hates you because of your sins and makes you so miserable.”
When your life’s a lemon and the devil is seeking to devour you, Peter says in the first half of verse 9, “Resist him firm in the faith.” What must you do? Resist the devil! Take a stand against him by remaining firm in your faith in God and his Word. So by faith say to the devil: “Devil, I know God loves me. In Hebrews 12:6 it is written: “For the one whom the Lord loves he disciplines, and he scourges every son whom he receives as his own.” So contrary to what you say, devil, the more God makes me miserable, the more I know he loves me. Don’t tell me he hates me because I am a sinner. He loves me so much that he gave his own Son Jesus on the cross as the payment for my sins. He does not, therefore, hold my sins against me. He has forgiven my sins. So don’t try to scare me by telling me God is angry with me because of my sins. You are a liar, devil; the father of lies. You cannot tell the truth. So the more you say God is angry with me about my sins, the more I know you are lying and that the truth is my sins are forgiven.”
Resist the devil. Some years ago I was feeling ill at ease. My mind was being troubled with doubts about God, his love for me, and my relationship with him because of my sins. I suddenly suspected the devil was troubling my mind. Since I knew that the devil could not read my thoughts like our all-knowing God can and does, I said out loud, so the devil could hear me: “Devil, in the name of Jesus I tell you to go away and leave me alone. Stop troubling me. Go on. Get out of here!” Do you know what happened? Immediately the nagging thoughts and doubts stopped. A feeling of peace flowed over me. Since then I have told other Christians to do the same thing when they are being troubled. Some of them have told me they have had the same result. Try it. It works. Look at what God promises us in James 4:7: “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” So resist the devil. Tell him to go away. And he will run away!
When your life’s a lemon, you, like us all, are also tempted to think you are the only lonesome stranger who is going through such trials of life and suffering. You then feel isolated and discouraged. But the end of verse 9 says: “. . . know that the same kinds of suffering are being laid upon your brothers in the world.” You are not alone. Your fellow Christians are suffering, just as you are. They are going through the same kind of trials and troubles and are enduring them by resisting the devil. Knowing you are not alone will comfort you and strengthen you to resist the devil and to go on as well.
Look at the comfort verse 10 gives you. Peter wrote: “And the God of all grace, the One who called you to his eternal glory in Christ Jesus, after you have suffered for a little while, will Himself make you complete, firm, strong, established.” Our gracious God himself, after you have suffered for a little while, will make you complete, firmly fixed, strong, and established so you are preserved and win out. He has the power to do this for you, as well as to bring the suffering into your life. This is why Peter ended this text with the hymn of praise in verse 11: “To him be the power forever and ever. Amen.”
So when life’s a lemon and you have a sad face, yield to God and resist the devil. God will lift up your spirit and make you glad you did.
Amen.
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