God loves to magnify His power in carrying your anxiety.

God loves to flex His muscles to show the whole world how utterly wonderful and unique His gracious burden bearing power is.

God's gracious burden bearing power is our spiritual fuel for courage.

This power is what John Piper explores from 1 Peter 5, 1 to 11, in this episode of Light and Truth.

This sermon was originally preached at Bethlehem Baptist Church on June 13, 1993.

The opposite of boldness is anxiety or fear.

So it's not surprising that God at Bethlehem would not only be calling us to be bold but also would be providing us with means for getting rid of anxieties.

To take your anxiety and to give you boldness are two ways of saying the same thing.

The morning's text is not a direct call to boldness. It's an indirect one because it's a call to be free of anxiety.

That's just the flip side of the coin of courage or boldness or risk taking is to have your anxieties taken away.

Now there's something very unusual about this text and what's unusual about it is the threat to your peace that tends to create anxiety.

What is it in this text that seems to take the anxiety level up so that Peter needs to come in and help you get rid of the anxiety?

It's not prison, it's not injury, it's not slander, it's not plundering of property, it's not losing your money like we've seen in previous weeks, it's humility.

The big threat that makes anxiety rise in this text is the call to humility.

Let me show you that so you can see it in the flow of the verses from verses 5 to 7.

The chapter begins in verse 1 by calling the elders of the churches to shepherd the flock of God willingly, eagerly not with sorted pain in their eyes as though money were the thing in ministry.

And then it turns to the young man and then it turns to everybody.

Let me start reading at verse 5.

You younger men likewise be subject to your elders and then here comes the whole church being addressed and all of you close yourselves with humility.

Here we see this thing, it's going to come now several times.

Close yourselves with humility toward one another.

For God opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble.

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