Be sober-minded and alert. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.Be sober and self-controlled. Be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, walks around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:Be sober, be watchful: your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:
9 sermons cite this verse
… It's relentless. In 1 Peter chapter 5, verse 8, the Bible gives us a command on how to deal with a relentless enemy. I mentioned last week that Jesus Christ loves you. The God of the Bible loves you and he tells you he loves you. But you gotta remember, the devil who hates God hates you. And to be quite honest, you're caught in the middle of this war between love and hate. God loves, Satan hates. You're the prize. You say, why doesn't Satan just give up? He's already defeated. Why doesn't he just twiddle his thumbs until he winds up in hell? There's a good answer to this question. He can't win a thing. There's only one thing he can do, and that is to inflict pain in the heart of Almighty God, who gave himself through Christ Jesus on the cross for your sins. God loves you, but God does not make robots. You've got to make a choice to accept Christ or not. The Bible says that God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to eternal life. …
… stuff that blesses their life at your expense. Paul says, watch out for them. In 1 Peter chapter 5, 1 Peter 5 verse 8, stay alert, watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Stand firm against him and be strong in your faith. Remember that your family of believers all over the world is going through the same kind of suffering that you are. Watch out. Be wise. The enemy wants to destroy your life. And finally, we end with this. We're going to make it. It's verse 13. And let life in. Let life in. You say, that's kind of a weird thing. No, it's not a weird thing. Let life in. Right now, 250 of our high schoolers are up at camp right now. We're all praying, God, have for each of them a moment of encountering you. Listen, would you want to be a teenager in this world? We need to pray and be very, very loving and very, very much involved in our teens' lives, teens in our life, because they live in a time and an age that you and I escaped. …
… The apostle Paul says, be sober-minded, be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world and after you have suffered a little while. The God of all grace who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the dominion forever and ever. What I wanna take a look at, this is not an exhaustive list, but the way I see this text is Peter is showing us at least five ways that men are typically taken off of that wall by the schemes of the enemy. The first one I see is this, is pride. It's pride. This is why Peter says, humble yourself therefore under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you. And pride is really hard to see in yourself because you like what's looking back in the mirror. …
… chapter 9 is that there is a demonic adversary who wants to destroy you and people around you in all these ways. This is what he does. 1 Peter 5, 8. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. The word means to destroy completely. And we don't think like this. We just think if we can't see it, if it's not real. But we saw this a few months ago when we were studying Ephesians chapter 6. We don't wrestle against flesh and blood, but against rulers, authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness and spiritual force of evil in the heavenly places. There are cosmic powers over darkness and spiritual forces of evil in heavenly places who want and are actively working to destroy you and people around you. That is the bad news. So what's the good news? Here's the good news from this story. Jesus has come with divine authority over the devil, and Jesus is able to deliver and restore all who trust in him. That's The good news. …
… every side because we know we're in a fight. And what is that fight? What we talked about, number one, that fight is your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. And whether you choose to be in a fight or not, you're in one because A, you're created in the image of God and B, you're redeemed by God. And so this fallen angel who is anti the glory of God and knows that he can't actually hurt God now in the limited freedom he has on this broken earth wants to hurt the people that God loves. The thief comes to steal. He comes to kill. He comes to destroy. Why is he after me? I haven't bugged him. He's after you because you're made in the image of the God that he despises. And he's after you because God loves you. And he can wound the heart of God by wounding the people that God loves. His plan, the enemy, is not to annoy you. …
… Be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of sufferings are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you to him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen. I see here Peter laying out some of the schemes of the enemy that he has historically taken men out. Here's what's so wonderful about God's word. This is not an old book. This is a timeless book. This thing is living and active. It doesn't just tell you what happened, it tells you what always happens. And so Peter is warning men about some ways that the enemy historically has taken men out. I'm gonna give you five of them. It's not an exhaustive list. This is just what Peter addresses. …
… Connection protects your faith. Isolation weakens your faith. Community strengthens it. 1 Peter 5 8 says this be sober be vigilant because your adversary the devil walks about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour did it say he will devour it didn't say that he said whom he may which means it's possible but it's not definite possibility comes to those who are vulnerable in the natural the lion goes always goes after the sheep or the deer that has left the pack because when I become separated I become more vulnerable to the attacks of the enemy. and the enemy knows beware of people and things that pull you away from godly counsel beware of people and things that pull you away ask it is this pulling me away from the bible is this pulling me away from prayer is this pulling me away from the house of god Is this pulling me away from being truly committed to God and his house and to his people? …
… Be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him. Firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you to him be the dominion forever and ever, amen. By Silvanus, a faithful brother, as I regard him, I have written briefly to you, exhorting and declaring that this is the true grace of God. stand firm in it. She who is at Babylon, who is likewise chosen, sends you greetings, and so does Mark, my son. Greet one another with the kiss of love. Peace to all of you who are in Christ. As I said this morning, it's tempting when we come to the end of one of these letters to think that we just have an assortment, a hodgepodge of material and exhortations to wrap up this letter. All the big doctrinal points are out there. …
… Your adversary,' mark that, "'your adversary,' he's writing to believers, "'your adversary,' the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour.'" He's stalking believers. Not that He has access to them, but He stalks them through the system of the world in which we find ourselves. Three times in the gospel of John, Satan is called the ruler of this world. Three times, John 12, John 14, and John 16. The ruler of this world, it's been common for me to hear people say in recent months, who's running this country? Who is running this country? I can tell you exactly who's running this country. Satan is running this country. The devil is running this country. And he runs every other country and every other nation and every other kingdom in the world. He is the ruler of this world. Back in Ephesians 2, He is called in verse 2, the prince of the power of the air, who works in the sons of disobedience. Notice that. …