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     A large part of childhood was play for most of us. When I think of playing, I often think of games we used to play. I imagine adults were often the creators of games because everyone knew the games. I suspect that the games were just passed down from generation to generation. What was your favorite game? Mine was “red rover” probably because it was a challenge to one’s strength to hold the line against the child running at a full sprint to break through the line. What was your least favorite game? Mine was “follow the leader” probably because there seemed to be no competitive purpose.

However, it seems like that “game” has more real-life purpose in it than most of our games. The question before each of us is, what leader are you following? As has been stated clearly, who is on the throne of your life? Even if it is you, you will be influenced by something(s) outside of yourself because we were made to give ourselves to something. In today’s passage Peter lays before us an answer to the question, who are you going to follow? Who is worth giving yourself to? Let us turn our attention to the last chapter in Peter’s first letter to the churches in Asia Minor, Turkey, Iran, and Iraq.

“I challenge those who carry the authority of spiritual leadership for the faith community as one who has filled that same role and has firsthand experience with Jesus as well as one anticipating the glory that is yet to come. Be a shepherd like the Good Shepherd to those you have been given to care for. Give spiritual oversight willingly and not for selfish motives of status or gain. Exercise oversight not dominatingly but serving as an example of Christlikeness.

The metric of God’s kingdom is such that your character is your currency. When Jesus returns, He will bring His medals with Him and assign them appropriately. In like manner you who are younger your spirit of submission to those more experienced is measured by Christ. Jesus and is looking for those who carry forward a spirit of humility. God’s scale weighs humility over pride and gives favor to the humble. Therefore, raise the flag of humility to which you pledge your allegiance. It is God and God alone who will then honor you before men and angels. He alone is your refuge and champion.

Pay attention, don’t go to sleep on life. The evil one is awake and alive and actively committed to his strategy regarding you. His way is thievery, annihilation, and elimination. The way to resist his strategy is to lean on the weight of your faith experienced through the vitality of your relationship with Jesus. Keep in mind that the family of God that you are a part of faces the same stresses all over the world. You are not alone in this.

As a consequence of your suffering, remember that God’s way is to come to you with a heart of restoration, confirmation, strength, and constant care. He has called you to Himself you are with Him and He is with you. He has dominion over everything on earth.

I remind you of some of those who fully understand your plight and are standing with you in prayer, namely Silas, the church in Rome, and lastly John Mark.

Whatever our station in life from leadership to childhood Jesus is set before us and calls us to follow our leader. Whatever the expression of our life in Christ, humility is to be our calling card. As Peter speaks to those first who fills the ranks of elders the exhortation is that they are under shepherds in the community, the Great Shepherd of Psalm 23 is their leader, the one to whom they are accountable in how they lead and care for those they have been assigned.

The first step in growth toward maturity for younger men is that they learn the path of submission through humility. It is not natural to them they have to learn God’s way. From day one setting aside ego is essential when we learn God’s way, truth, and life.

The reality of the circumstance in which Peter’s audience lives always includes suffering. So much so that the context of our followership usually includes suffering of one kind or another. Suffering usually begins with social rejection or the difficulty in finding or keeping a job (as it did for his historic audience). Then it moves to open criticism and isolation. Eventually, for many it will lead to incarceration and finally death. Remember, the pagan world hates Jesus!

Get used to being strangers and aliens in a foreign land. At the same time as called out ones from the world by Jesus to follow Him we are never led to hide from the world that we are sent to, except to hide in Him as our refuge. In the midst of suffering of whatever level that you may experience in your lifetime it is crucial that you take the long view that the crown of glory is there in God’s hands. It isn’t going anywhere, and it is coming!

Remember this, just because the battle in the heavenlies over good and evil is invisible to the naked eye, don’t lose sight of its reality. Peter’s audience was keenly aware because of their more recent conversion, and the pagan nature of society. Our struggle is because we haven’t recognized the evolution of morality in our society sometimes because we are too provincial or because we are exceedingly naïve.

Peter’s thread throughout the letter is to champion humility as Jesus was humble. His humility was not naïve, but sound of mind and heart and recognizing the power of God. Humility is not weakness but because it places us in the mighty hand of God, it puts us in our strongest possible place. Humility has power over aggression. Aggression is the fruit of pride which is at the root of everything that is wrong. Pride places us in opposition to God. Think about it!

What got Lucifer kicked out of heaven even though he was the most beautiful angel? One thing – PRIDE! Today he lives with pride and anger. Angry that he didn’t get and won’t get what he wanted – worship. Peter understands the wholeness and holiness of life and encourages his audience with what they need most.

Follow the Leader, Jesus! If we learn His way, His truth, and His life it will lead us into both wholeness and holiness. Humility is essential to the path.

The way of God for elders in the church and for all of us in the midst of whatever influence God may give us the way David described the Lord as our Shepherd is applicable for all of us, Psalm 23. “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside quiet waters. He restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows. Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” May David’s experience be our own and may we keep this in mind as we influence grandchildren or anyone God has given us influence in their lives. We need to learn the Good Shepherd way.

Our calling is to lead an exemplary life from now on. Don’t worry about yesterday. There isn’t anything you can do about the past, but you can accept the yoke of exemplary living today and into tomorrow. How we live is the most important and most powerful witness that we have as we live in a pagan society. And don’t expect society to be anything but pagan. Once we have been redeemed, we were made for another place and in a way that is our suffering.

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