[0:01] Your Bibles, if you would, and turn with me to James chapter 4, James chapter 4, and we're going to work our way through this passage of Scripture. I was just sitting there thinking, the Lord really gave me a pastor's heart.
[0:16] I love you. I don't really spend that much time with you. I don't know you that much. I know that because once you get a church a little bit larger than just a few people, you don't spend that much time.
[0:28] But I spend time with you in prayer, and I think about you, and I hear about your hurt. And then I hear somebody come in, and it breaks my heart to know that the devil is often beating the living slop out of you.
[0:47] And you were meant to live in joy. You were meant to live an abundant life. And somehow, you are not having victory. And so, I want to share with you, and I hope you'll really go with me.
[0:59] I'm probably going to take more time than I would normally take, and just be more free than I normally am, because I want to talk to you about that this morning, and try to help you. Well, it's not here in the notes, so the guys back there aren't ready.
[1:11] But put John 10.10 up there on the screen, if you would. John 10.10, I think, sums up this battle, this war we're in. Because John 10.10 talks about the thief, and that thief is the devil, Satan, the accuser of the brethren, our adversary.
[1:28] And the Bible says in John 10.10, the thief comes up for to steal, to kill, and to destroy. There's nothing he enjoys more than watching you suffer.
[1:39] What he really likes you to do is to miss out on all God has for you. So, he knows that it's yours. He knows that it belongs to you, that in Jesus, you have all these wonderful promises, and you could be living in victory, and you could be living an abundant life, and he knows that.
[1:59] And so, all he has to do is deceive you, lie to you, and trick you, and you will miss out on that, and he will have stolen from you. He will have killed your joy.
[2:09] He will have robbed you, destroyed all the excitement you could have had. But Jesus came that we might have life, eternal life, to be saved, to go to heaven, but eternal life to enjoy what he has done in our lives.
[2:23] And so, I really want to ask you to take some time with me and go through this passage of scripture and see if the Lord will help you. Go with me, if you would, to verse 6. The first thing to have victory, to resist the devil.
[2:37] And that's in verse 7. You got your Bible open, underline it. It uses those very terms, resist the devil. So, evidently, you need to. Evidently, when he gives a command and says, you resist the devil, that means that we have to learn to resist the devil.
[2:52] He wouldn't tell us to do something he didn't want us to do. He wouldn't tell us to do something we couldn't do. He has told us to resist the devil. I'm starting in the verse just prior to that because I think it's a setting that gets you ready to hear what he's going to say to you in verse 7.
[3:07] And it says in verse 6, but he gives more grace. Wherefore, he said, God resists the proud, but gives grace unto the humble.
[3:17] God gives grace to the humble. So, I just want to help you this morning. You know, I can't tell you any stories because if I told you the stories, it would betray trust.
[3:28] But more than one person in the last two or three weeks has told me about somehow the devil has hurt them. How somehow the devil is bringing up the past. How somehow the devil has tempted you and got you to a place where you don't want to be.
[3:42] Where you know you don't belong. Where you shouldn't be. And so, I want you to have victory. Well, here's the first step. You've got to humble yourself so God will show more grace.
[3:55] Wouldn't you like God to give more help to you right now? How many of you could use more help right now? Say amen. I mean, I could use more help. He's already given me help, but he said he'll give more grace.
[4:07] If you look at that verse, he gives more grace. And so, if in my pride, I tend to think, hey, I got this. I got this. And that's an American thing, but we are so haughty and so proud and so arrogant.
[4:21] And I say that about all of us. As Americans, we're like, you know, it's individualistic and I can and I will and I'm able. But in all honesty, when you stand against the devil, you can't and you must acknowledge that.
[4:35] So, let's go to some truths in this humbling thing. You are under attack. Look at 1 Peter 5 and verse 8. 1 Peter 5 and verse 8.
[4:45] As Christians, we are under attack. This is Peter. This is the guy who preached on the day of Pentecost. This is the guy who is the big mouth always talking to Jesus. This is the guy who's very close to him.
[4:58] This is the guy who got whipped by the devil. But even getting whipped, he won just like you will if you'll listen to this. But look what he says.
[5:08] Be sober. Calm down. Think about it. Be honest. Don't be flippant. Don't be playing around. Don't take this like it's not important. Be sober.
[5:19] Settle down. Calm down. Be vigilant. Open your eyes. Wake up and realize what's going on around you. Because you live in 2017. You believe everything is scientific.
[5:30] You believe everything is coincidental. You believe everything is just happening. You don't believe in the devil. You've been taught not to believe in him. You don't believe in hardly anything to be honest because they've convinced you that you're an animal that evolved from some mass out of a big bang somewhere.
[5:46] And you don't realize there is a God in heaven. And he's at work in your life. And so be vigilant. Then it says you have an adversary. So why should you be sober? Why should you be vigilant?
[5:57] Because you have an adversary. Because you have an enemy. Because you have somebody that's against you. We have somebody who is out to get us. That's what the apostle Peter said.
[6:09] He said, be your adversary of the devil as a roaring lion walks about seeking whom he may devour. So right now he's just circling the herd looking for the weak person.
[6:19] Looking for the person that can be beat. Looking for the person he can discourage. Looking for the person he can pull away from the Lord. Looking for the person he can hurt. Now you know, Peter's one doing a talking there.
[6:32] So look if you would at Luke 22, 31 with me. Now it is just before the crucifixion. And the apostle Peter, I don't know what he looked like.
[6:46] But I picture a guy who went to the gym a lot. Not really because he was a fisherman. But I mean, I just picture muscles and dark skin from the sun. He's bronze and good looking and sharp.
[6:58] And he's got tough hands. And he's a big, strong man. And in Luke chapter 21, Jesus is going to the cross. And he says to him, no, no, no, no. You're not going to go to the cross.
[7:09] We're not going to let you go. Nobody's going to kill you. And Jesus turned to him and said, Satan, get behind me. Because he knew it was the devil talking and not what Peter should be saying. And then Jesus says something to Peter in Luke 22, 31.
[7:24] The Bible says, and the Lord said, Simon, behold, Satan had desired to have you that he may sift you as wheat.
[7:36] Now, Jesus just flat out says, Peter, the devil wants you and he wants to hurt you. Now, what's that mean to sift you like wheat?
[7:48] You know, I don't even know if you know what a sifter is. But I grew up on the farm and you had flour. And the flour had little bugs in it. And so you took the flour out of the big basket and you put a bag and you poured it into this thing.
[8:01] And you had a sifter and you shook it like that. And it shook out the flour and made sure you kept the bugs out of it. This would be more like beating the wheat to separate the seed from the wheat to get it where you could use it.
[8:15] So basically, Jesus looks at Peter and says, devil wants to beat you hard. He wants to shake you up. He wants to destroy your life. He's asked if he can do that.
[8:26] Luke chapter 22, verse 31, verse 32. Jesus doesn't say, but I ain't letting it happen. Jesus doesn't say, I'm not letting it happen. Jesus says in verse 32, I have prayed for you that your faith fail not.
[8:41] I love that. Jesus says, Peter, the devil wants to beat slop out of you. And I'm going to let him. I'm like, could you just not tell him no? He asked.
[8:52] You could just simply say, no, he's my guy. You're not messing with him. But Jesus says instead, so I prayed for you that you wouldn't fail. I prayed for you so you wouldn't fail.
[9:04] And then he says something beautiful in the verse. He says, and when you are converted, when this is over and you are stronger, when this is over and you have learned a lesson, when this is over and you have really gained from the experience, I want you to teach the other guys and strengthen the other guys.
[9:23] Well, it says a whole lot to me. It says he's going to let him go through it. It says, but he won't leave him alone while he's going through it because he's going to pray for him. It says to me that he already knew he was going to have victory in it.
[9:34] And he says, after it's over, you're going to get to use what happened to you. That's pretty good. But you know the story. Peter's like, everybody else around here might deny you.
[9:46] He said, that John, he's the one that leans his head on your chest and he acts like he's your favorite. But he'll probably deny you. And you can't trust James either. But there's one guy in this crowd, you know, if anybody sticks, I stick because I am an American Baptist.
[10:01] I am proud and arrogant and I know I can handle it. And the rest of them may run, but not me. And before it's over, he's going to deny Jesus three times and a little girl is going to make him cry just about.
[10:14] So that's the real story. So, Peter, you're about to be whipped. Maybe you should humble yourself instead of saying, I got this. Instead of saying, my doctor can handle this with the pills.
[10:25] Instead of saying, my psychologist is going to help this. Maybe I ought to think to myself, I need to get a hold of God and I need God to work in my life. We are in a spiritual war.
[10:37] Satan is mad. He wants to hurt you. He wants to flood you with trouble. He wants to steal your joy. He wants to make you walk away from God.
[10:48] He loves it when churches get weak. He loves it when Christians fall away. He loves it when people get their feelings hurt. You see, we're dealing with an all-out war.
[10:59] Look in your Bible with me, if you would, at Revelation chapter 12 and verse 7. Look at Revelation chapter 12 and verse 7 with me, if you would. And in Revelation chapter 12 and verse 7, there was war in heaven.
[11:12] Michael and his angels fought against the dragon. And the dragon fought and his angels. And prevailed not. So the dragon fought with his angels, with his demons.
[11:24] But he didn't win. But he couldn't find a place anymore in heaven because God's kicking him out. Now, we want to know who that is, verse 9. And the great dragon was cast out.
[11:35] Now, who's that great dragon? The old serpent called the devil. And Satan, which deceives the whole world, was cast out into the earth. And his angels were cast out with him.
[11:47] So go back up, if you would, to verse 7. There's a war in heaven. See, the devil rose up and said, God, I don't like you telling me what to do.
[11:59] I don't like you being number one and me being number two or three or four or five. I don't like that. I don't like everything being like what you want. I'd like it all to be like what I want. And so me and my boys, we're going to stand up against you.
[12:11] And God let the Michael, the good angels, and they had a war. And about two-thirds of the angels stayed good. And a third of the angels messed up. There was this big war. And the devil got cast out. And when the devil got cast out of heaven, he was allowed to come down to, if you'll open your Bible.
[12:25] And look, it said, verse 8, there was no more place found in heaven for him. And in verse 9, he was cast out into the earth. And his angels with him.
[12:36] But I want you to underline in verse 9 what he's doing. He's deceiving the whole world, the whole world. So the devil walks around all the time. He is the biggest lying jerk that ever walked on this earth.
[12:51] He is in the business of telling lies. Now, Jesus is in the business of telling truth. God's in the business of telling truth. The devil's in the business of telling lies. And there's a war going on.
[13:02] He lost the war up there. He got cast out down to here. And so now he's making war on all of God's work and all of God's people. He is still the adversary. He's still the accuser.
[13:13] But I'll stop and tell you, he's going to lose. He will soon be cast into prison, a bottomless pit for a thousand years. And after that, he'll get out one more time. And when he gets out one more time, he'll raise a whole other army.
[13:25] And he'll try to attack God. And then he'll be whipped for good and thrown into the lake of fire. And the whole thing's over. And he's lost and he's whipped. But till then, we're in a war. Till then, we are in a war.
[13:39] And the devil is hard at it. I want to show you something real quickly. We need to humble ourselves. You need to know. How many of you tell the truth?
[13:51] How many of you just sometimes think, I just don't know if there's anything to do with this stuff of serving God? You ever cross your mind? Well, that didn't come from God. That came from the devil.
[14:02] How many of you ever have these thoughts of, it just seems like serving God takes away all my joy and makes me have to live in this little strict box. Well, that didn't come from God. That came from the devil.
[14:13] He's a liar and a deceiver. And he's trying to mess with you. And by the way, what you need to understand is it's a war. And in a war, it's like you've got to take ground. In fact, the Bible uses the words that says don't give place to the devil.
[14:29] So if you could imagine this platform as being your heart or being your life or being who you are, if you could imagine that being the case, what the devil's out to do is see if he can't take a chunk of land from you.
[14:40] He doesn't care about you. He's just against God. And when you got saved, the Holy Spirit of God is supposed to move in here and have control and run your life and bring you the joy and do all the work in your life.
[14:51] He's supposed to be doing that. But the devil's out to take place in your life. Let me give you some ways real quickly that he causes you to lose ground where Satan begins to take control in your life if you're not careful.
[15:06] Number one, because you're not faithful to church. He gets you to lay out of church. Look, if you would, at Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 24 and 25. Hebrews 10, 24 and 25.
[15:17] Now, when you come to church, you come to church for a good reason. You don't come to church because I'm good looking. And you don't come to church because I'm that good a speaker. You come to church because Christianity was never meant to be lived alone.
[15:30] Because Christianity is a family affair. Because Christianity is a congregation. Christianity is an assembly. And Christianity is one person helping another person who's helping another person.
[15:41] And we're all in this together. And it's not somebody coming to watch a show. It's a bunch of us coming together. And watch what we do. Look at verse 24. Let's consider one another. So we're supposed to walk in this room and walk into our services.
[15:54] And all week long, we're supposed to be thinking about, I need to think about you. I don't come to church to consider me. I come to church to consider you. And I walk in the door and I'm like, man, I'm here. I need to be a blessing to my brothers.
[16:05] I'm here and I'm going to see what I can do to help my brothers and my sisters in Christ. And I'm going to help them. And he even tells me what to help them with. Look at this. To provoke them to love. See, I want to help them learn to love.
[16:16] I want them to have more love in their marriage. I want them to have more love as they raise their children. I want them to have more love as they have friends. I want them to have more love for God. I want to get together with my friends and say, man, let's love Jesus.
[16:27] Let's love our wives. Let's love our children. Let's love each other because the world is full of hate. And we come together because we're God's people. And we're going to talk about all that good stuff. So we provoke to love.
[16:38] And then we provoke to good works. That means you motivate. You encourage good works. All of a sudden, instead of it all being about me, it becomes all about him and all about others and how I serve Jesus.
[16:53] I grew up a little kid in a Southern Baptist church in the hills of Tennessee. And they used to say, you know how you spell joy? You probably heard this if you're old enough. They used to say you spell joy by saying Jesus first, others second, yourself last.
[17:05] Jesus first, others second, yourself last. That's how they taught us when I was a little boy. And that's basically what we're going to provoke each other to. But look at verse 25. Verse 25. Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as a manner of some is.
[17:21] Now, some people are like, I don't want to get together. Just heard a friend of mine this very week say, I'm not into going to church anymore. If you're not into traditional church, you just want to hang out and talk to some other people on Facebook.
[17:32] You don't have to get around real people. I was like, my goodness, you just don't understand. You're my buddy, been my buddy 45 years, but you obviously don't even understand the word church, which means assembly, getting together. We're to get together.
[17:43] And he said, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as a manner of some is, but exhorting one another. Exhorting one another, motivating each other, challenging each other, pushing each other.
[17:56] So much the more as you see the day approaching. If you think Jesus is coming, then I ought to be encouraging you. If you think things are getting bad, if you think things are needed, then I ought to be challenging and motivating you.
[18:08] So just let me tell you what happens. You've got your life here, and the devil says, you don't need to be around them other Christians. Carve me out some places right here for your family entertainment. Carve me out some places right here.
[18:20] God understands you can worship him from a lake just like you can worship him from anywhere. You don't need to assemble. And that's like, okay. So then you give the devil this little space, and every day he's going to take more until you wake up like my friend and say, I don't like church.
[18:35] Another way he takes space. Another way, you need each other. We need each other. I need you. You need me. The Bible talks about us being a body. We need each other.
[18:46] The church needs each other. The church, the people, not the church building, not some kind of institution, but Christians need each other. Another way the devil takes space is he causes you not to forgive.
[18:59] You hold on to bitterness. You won't forgive. So over here, you've already cut off a space and said, all right, Lord, you understand I need some me time. I need some me space.
[19:10] And you like to take all my weekends, and so I need me some me space here. And then you say, and I don't like so-and-so. They hurt my feelings. And since they hurt my feelings, I need me some unforgiveness space.
[19:22] And so all of a sudden, you've got this space in your life, and you're like, I come to church, and I love Jesus. I love everybody. And I hear the message, but don't mess with my two spaces over there. Slowly, the devil's just eroding all this space God is supposed to have in your life.
[19:37] He causes you to get involved in arguing and fault-finding. Boy, isn't that the church? People, instead of coming to church to encourage and motivate and push and help each other grow and do more for Jesus, they're like, I got my space cut out for me over here, I got my space here for not forgiving people.
[19:53] And when I go to church, bless God, everybody needs to know how wrong they are. And so God has appointed me the self-appointed fault-finder. And I can walk into church, and I can show all of y'all what's wrong with you.
[20:04] It's my job to say, I don't like the way you're dressed, I don't like the way you talk, I don't like the way you walk. And you get all this fault-finding. Jesus wasn't like that. Jesus wasn't like that.
[20:15] But all of a sudden, man, half your life is eating up with it. Then you start holding grudges and bitterness. Look with me, if you would, in James chapter 3. The same book we're in. Look in James chapter 3 and verse 14, if you would, with me.
[20:27] James chapter 3 and verse 14. Boy, listen to this. This is a mean passage. James wrote this. Peter, James, and John up there with Jesus.
[20:39] He said, if you have bitter, envying, and strife in your hearts, don't be proud of that. Glory not. If you have bitter, envying, and strife.
[20:51] Do you know there are some people go to that church, got really fancy cars and really fancy houses, and I think if they loved Jesus, they wouldn't be like that. They'd give it all to me. Some bitter, envying, and strife in your hearts.
[21:07] Don't glory and don't lie against the truth. Verse 15. Hang on. Y'all put your seatbelts on. Don't read this verse. I need to say to you, this next verse was meant for adults to read.
[21:18] Are you ready? It says, this wisdom descends not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish.
[21:30] Good night. He said, so there are people going around like jealous and envying and striving and wanting first place. And how come I didn't get mentioned, and how come I can't get on the platform, and how come I can't have a Sunday school class?
[21:42] How come I, hey, how come I can't get my time? He said, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. That ain't supposed to be going on here. He said, if that's going on in your life, that didn't come from above.
[21:54] That came from beneath. And I'll tell you where it came from. It's devilish. Look at that word. That's a funny word, isn't it? Devilish. Devilish. He said, that's sensual. You're basing it on your feelings and on what you want.
[22:07] You're basing it on things from this earth and not things of the Lord. Verse 15 or 16, if you would. For where envying and strife is, there is confusion in every evil work.
[22:24] See, the devil's in this, and he's like, I want y'all fighting and fussing. Man, how many Baptist churches? They should change their name to Envying and Strife Baptist Church. And he said, if that's going on, it's causing confusion.
[22:38] How many marriages is that tearing up? Because the husband or the wife or the children are, I get to go first. It's what I want that's important, not what you want. And there's all this fighting and fussing going on.
[22:50] Where'd that come from? It's devilish. It's sensual. It's from the earth. But look what it says in verse 17. But the wisdom that is from above, the wisdom that's from God, is first pure.
[23:04] It's not about you at all. It's peaceable. It's peaceable. Some people come to a church where there's not fussing and fighting. The preacher's not ripping everybody's face. They're like, that ain't real church because the preacher don't kick you real hard.
[23:16] Hey, something comes from above. It's peaceable. Say amen right there. You know, this ought to be a place of peace. Amen. It's peaceable. It's gentle.
[23:26] It's easy to be entreated. It's full of mercy and good fruits without partiality and without hypocrisy. Without hypocrisy. And the next verse says, and the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.
[23:42] One more place. You've cut God out of your life. And I mean, you know, the fact is American churches are, how many more services can we cut? I mean, we don't need midweeks.
[23:53] We don't need Sunday nights. We just don't need to get together. We get together too much. I'd like to get together with my bridge club. No, y'all don't do that anymore. I'd like to get together with my Jeep club. I'd like to get together with my hunting club. I'd like to get, but I don't have time for the church club.
[24:07] Then you, then, then, then, then you got unforgiveness. You're forgiven. You're supposed to forgive, but we don't. And then we got to argue and find fault and fight for who gets to be first.
[24:18] And then we hold on to bitterness. And then we don't trust God when we have trouble. You see there, here's the problem. I don't think anybody in this room, you won't say this out loud. You won't tell me this, but I think everybody in this room knows you've been dealing with some junk.
[24:31] You got stuff going on in your head. You got stuff happening in your heart. It's discouraging you. It's depressing you. It's making you doubt God. It's making you doubt the word of God. It's making you all this junk's going on in your life.
[24:42] And you would never deny that. But here's the next place we give place the devil. We don't trust God when that stuff happens. We trust us. We don't trust God. We find somebody else to help us.
[24:53] The last person we talk to is God. Hebrews 11, 33. I won't take the time to go through it. But they, through faith, subdued kingdoms, they quenched the violence of the fire.
[25:04] Some of them even died without getting what they wanted. They were tortured and didn't accept deliverance that they might receive a better reward. In other words, what happens, hey, listen to me. I'm going to talk to you. I got five points.
[25:16] We're not going to get but two of them, it looks like. But I'm going to talk to you. But you're going to have to say, I'm going to believe God here. See, that's what humbling is. Humbling is, I'm going to believe God.
[25:26] Here's the way we typically work. When we've spent all our money, used all of our resources, talked to every doctor possible, and done everything that we could possibly humanly, earthly do, we say, well, I ain't got no choice now.
[25:38] I just have to trust God. The last place we go is God. In Hebrews 11, 6 says, without faith it's impossible to please him. We need to believe that he is.
[25:48] We need to trust him. Go back with me to James chapter 4 and verse 7 if you would. Now, so in verse 6, I need to humble myself. Do you want victory? Do you want victory?
[25:58] This, Forsyth County is like the 20th richest county in the United States. So humble doesn't go with Forsyth County.
[26:12] Poor people give more. Do you know what state gives the most to per capita to Southern Baptist causes? We're not Southern Baptist, but I just heard this from a Southern Baptist source.
[26:22] First, Mississippi. Not Forsyth County. Forsyth County can just, but Mississippi. I mean like number 50 and everything. Sorry if you're from Mississippi. And poor people, man, they're going to pour it out.
[26:35] These rich people, I ain't bowing the knee. I ain't admitting the need. I don't even know how to spell humble. Fact is, if I spelled it, I think it's spelled P-R-I-D-E. I'm pretty sure.
[26:46] That's humble. But see, the first step is, man, I need God. I need God. With my education, with my money, with my nice house, with my beautiful family, with my beautiful wife, I need God.
[27:00] James chapter 4, verse 7. How do you resist the devil? First thing, you admit you've got a problem. You admit you need help. And you admit you need God. And you're willing to trust him. Number two, you submit to God.
[27:12] James chapter 4, verse 7. Read this part of the verse. Submit yourselves, therefore, to God. Submit yourselves, therefore, to God. Resist the devil, and so on. We'll get to that in a minute. So go with me to some Bible verses.
[27:23] What's it mean to submit yourself to God? You see, if you want to have victory, the first thing you're going to do is you're going to say, I really need help. The second thing you're going to say is, I'm going to do what God tells me to do.
[27:38] The first thing is, I need help. The second thing is, I'm going to do what God tells me to do. See, when you get in real trouble, you get to a place in your life when you're in real trouble, you've got to find somebody who knows, and you just do what they say.
[27:51] It's not a big issue to anybody else, but five years ago, I had kidney cancer. And when they told me I had kidney cancer, I went on the Internet, and I found out that I was going to be dead real quick. And I was scared dead.
[28:05] Just to be honest with you, I'm a Christian. I preached about going to heaven all the time, but I wasn't planning on making a trip that quick. I was planning on waiting a little bit. And I had to get myself together and trust the Lord.
[28:17] And you know what? When I went to the doctor, I went to this doctor, and I sat down with this doctor, and he said, Hey, man, we can take care of this. We're just under control. And when he said that, I just said, Okay, buddy. Somebody got me in charge around here, and I'm scared to know I'll just trust you.
[28:29] Well, that's where you've got to get with the Lord on this. You've got to get to the Lord and say to him, I need somebody that knows something that can tell me what to do next.
[28:40] And so, God, I'm humbling myself, and I'm coming to you saying, I need help. I don't have the answers. I'm unable to handle this. I'm beyond my resources.
[28:51] I'm beyond what I can do. I just can't do it. And God said, All right, well, then here's the next thing. Just do what I tell you to do. That'll work. Just do what I tell you to do. Now, how do you do what God tells you to do?
[29:03] How do you submit to God? Well, the way we submit to God is we get full of this book. Now, take your Bible with me. Look at Colossians 3 and verse 16.
[29:14] Look at Colossians 3 and verse 16. And I don't have enough time to go through everything because we're going to make a series out of one message. But watch this. The truth is God's not going to speak to you in an audible voice.
[29:27] And you could go anywhere. You could go on a hike. You could climb a hill. You could do anything you want to do. You're not going to get a voice from God. God's already spoken. And when he spoke it, he was kind enough to write it down.
[29:40] I've asked people all my life. You know, if Jesus himself showed up here in the flesh and we saw him and he came up here and he told us that God saw of the world, he gave his only begotten son.
[29:53] And whosoever believed him should not perish forever every last night. Would you believe it? Everybody's like, you mean if Jesus himself came in here and told us? And they said, yeah. I said, so if he came, you'd believe him? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I said, well, what about if you wrote it down and signed his name to it?
[30:06] He did. He did. He did. You got the word of God on this. Now, Colossians chapter 3, verse 16. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.
[30:17] So I need this book to get into my mind and into my heart so it becomes a part of me. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your heart.
[30:33] So Lord, there's another one of those verses where I need you. Look at it. One another. Would you want to align one another in that verse? I need you. Because I need you to come and teach and admonish me. And I need you to sing with me and study the Bible with me.
[30:45] But look what happens. I want the word to fill me. I want to know what God says. Not Google, but God. I want to know what God says.
[30:55] I want to look up in the word of God. It's an attitude. And it's an action. It is, God, show me what to do and then I'll do it. You must get in the word and get the word into you.
[31:10] When you submit to God, you say, I'm saying no to human reason. I'm saying no to what everybody else thinks and I want to know what God thinks. Romans chapter 12, verse 2.
[31:20] One of my favorite verses in all the Bible for helping us in this. It says, and be not conformed to this world. That means don't do it like the world does it.
[31:31] The world's going to call Dr. Phil. The world's going to ask Oprah what she thinks. Basically what it's saying is don't be pressed into the way the world thinks.
[31:42] Don't have this world's way of thinking. This world's way of thinking is that God's not even real. That the Bible is old and out of date. The world's way of thinking is what does a human want?
[31:53] The world's way of thinking is big on man and little on God. Don't do that. Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed. Be changed by the renewing of your mind.
[32:07] Austin Gardner is 62 years old and he has studied and learned from this world. He's graduated from the university or college. He has the degrees. He's heard all this stuff.
[32:17] He's got a mind that thinks like all of the other human beings. He said, no, no, no. We need to change your mind, buddy. We need to get you out of what the books say and get you into what the book says.
[32:31] We need to change the way you think that you may prove, that you may know, that you may see what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. I don't even know what God wants. Do you want to hear a wild one?
[32:44] God has a plan for your life. God has a way to make you enjoy what he has. God wants to work in you. God's got this going for you and you don't know what it is because you're not full of the Bible.
[32:55] And the truth is, your Bible stays closed most of the week and you grab it on Sunday and dock the dust off it and come to church. Or you don't even bring your Bible and you say, I don't know what God wants me to do.
[33:06] That's because you're not full of the book. That's because you're not in the Bible. Because you're not letting God show you what to do. You understand submitting means you understand that obeying isn't about feeling, but doing.
[33:25] You know, you don't wake up one day and say, I just feel like obeying God today. The word submit is the word that a wife is to do to her husband, a church is to do to their pastor, children are to do to their parents.
[33:41] It's a word that's like, just obey. Son, take the garbage out. I'm not feeling that right now. I just ain't feeling it. Well, when you get the feeling, you go ahead and obey me.
[33:53] And when my boot catches your backside, your feeling will come. Say amen. The truth is, the truth is submitting isn't about feeling. I mean, when the policeman turns on the blue light and I just decide I'm ain't stopping.
[34:07] And when he finally pulls, they do the maneuver on me and I'm in the ditch and they're all around me. And he says, why didn't you stop? I didn't feel like it. I didn't feel like it.
[34:17] Well, you're supposed to submit to me. Oh, I don't feel like it. And submitting means feeling. No, it doesn't mean feeling like it. It just means doing it. Say amen. What's God want you to do? What's God want you to do?
[34:30] When's the last time you said, I'm going to ask God. And I'm going to find out what God wants and I'm just going to do what God wants me to do. Now, let me show you another verse.
[34:42] Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 30. Don't grieve the Holy Spirit. The Bible says in Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 30, And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby you are sealed under the redemption.
[34:58] Now, listen to this. When you got saved, God put the Holy Spirit in you and he said, The Holy Spirit in you is my guarantee you're going all the way. I'm taking you all the way to heaven. You're sealed. World can't get you.
[35:09] Devil can't get you. You're mine. I got my mark on you. It's rawhide. The old TV western I watched as a kid. And he's branded us and said, That one's mine.
[35:21] And I'm taking him to heaven. But he said this. You can grieve him. Don't grieve him. Don't make him feel sad. Now, here's what's happening.
[35:32] Even as I preach, your heart's saying, Yeah, I haven't really been obeying God. I don't really read my Bible. I'm kind of feeling like maybe there's some things I haven't been doing I ought to do.
[35:46] And maybe I ought to humble myself and admit that. I mean, that's kind of what the... I'm saying it out here, but you're feeling it on the inside. Here's what's going to end up happening. Some of you are going to go, I just won't ignore it.
[35:56] I'll just ignore that and I'll move on. Well, that's grieving. See, the Holy Spirit's dealing with your heart. He said, submit to me. Obey me. That guy up there is doing the talking, but he can only talk to your ear.
[36:09] I'm talking to your heart. Listen to him. Listen to me. I'm speaking to you. Don't grieve him. 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 19. Don't quench him.
[36:21] Don't smother him. Don't try to not listen to what he's doing in your heart. Don't try to not listen to what he's doing in your heart. You come to church. God's at work in this room right now.
[36:33] I can promise you. I may not see any of the results of it, and maybe none of you would ever flinch. You'd be like stone-faced. Even if God's doodled me, I ain't moving.
[36:45] You might do that, so you're quenching. I am too rich to get on my knees. I mean, whatever. You know, just whatever. So you're quenching. Submitting means stop it and obey God.
[37:00] Quenching. Quit quenching him. Don't resist him. Acts chapter 7, verse 51. Let me give you the two verses or two passages.
[37:14] Apply scripture to your life. Apply scripture to your life. James chapter 1 and verse 21 is like one of my most favorite.
[37:26] Of course, they're all my favorites. You're probably thinking, good night. You sure got a lot of favorites. I do. Just whenever I read it, I'm like, that's got to be my favorite. And the next one I read, I think that one is. So anyway, this is one of my favorites. Let me show you another one of my favorites.
[37:38] James 1, 21. Wherefore, lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your soul.
[37:51] This salvation here is not about going to heaven. You're already saved. He's talking to you that you're not living out who you are yet. You're to work out your salvation. He says in another place.
[38:02] What he's saying is, I've saved you. Now let's learn to live it. He says, I've saved you. Now let's learn to put it into practice. I made you my son. Now act like it.
[38:13] And I'll give you the power to do it. And I'll work it out. But he's working in us. He says, so here's what he said. Austin, you know there's some junk in your life I don't like. Don't shake your head.
[38:24] That'd scare me. Don't smile or anything. But I bet most of us in this room would be like, yeah, I know some junk in my life he don't like here either. I know some junk in my life he doesn't like.
[38:35] So he says, take it off. Put it aside. And receive with meekness, humility, the engrafted word.
[38:46] That means I've got to cut something out and make a, you know, engrafting it. You cut a hole in that tree and maybe you pull that old limb off or you put it in another part of that tree and you stick that in there.
[38:56] So that it becomes a part of that tree. He said, the engrafted word. So I'm going to work at putting this into me. The engrafted word, which is able to save your soul, which is able to let you learn to live like who you were meant to live like.
[39:11] You know, it's like we live in this house of poverty. And he has sent us the title deed to a mansion and all the money you could imagine.
[39:24] And we're like, I just served Jesus and it's pretty tough. And he's like, I got a bunch for you. Why don't you step out and trust me? I'm doing big stuff for you. I wanted you.
[39:34] I never, I didn't call you to come and have a miserable life. The thief's doing that. I want you to have an abundant life. That's what he's saying. Next verse.
[39:47] Next verse he says, so be doers, not hearers. Now, y'all are pretty good hearers. You come every Sunday and you listen. I appreciate that. But he said, I don't want you to do that.
[40:00] He says, be doers of the word, not hearers only, verse 22. Deceiving your own self. Because if you hear and you walk away and say, man, my head's full.
[40:10] I learned a whole lot of stuff. I ain't going to put any of it into practice. But I learned a whole lot. Well, that won't do you any good. That won't do you any good.
[40:21] Knowing it won't work. Doing it will work. He said, don't be a hearer. Be a doer. If you come and you listen and you walk out and say, man, if anybody ever comes to me and wants to resist the devil, I know I'd do it now.
[40:34] I'm not doing it, but I know how to do it. I don't have any victory myself, but I can tell you how to have victory. I love it when there's something I'm doing in the ministry and some expert will come to me and say, let me tell you how to do that.
[40:47] And my first question is, have you ever done it? No, but I have a degree in how to do it. And I'm always like, well, I'm glad you have a degree in it, but I've done it. Well, so here's this guy saying, I heard a whole bunch, but I don't do it.
[40:59] You're deceiving your own self. I'm not going to take the time to read the rest of it. But don't be a hearer. Be a doer. Apply the word. In just a minute, we're going to go home. In just a minute. But please don't go home and say, well, yeah, he did pretty good today.
[41:14] He did all right. He wasn't as boring as usual. It was a little bit better. I kind of got some of that today. I heard a bunch. Don't do that. Go do it.
[41:26] Go apply it. What's it mean to submit? My best example. Jesus is about to go to the cross. And three times he prays.
[41:40] And he said, anyway, this cup could pass from me. Well, not my will, but your will.
[41:51] Did he say that or not? If he said that, say amen. It says this in Matthew 26, 42. You didn't believe me. I thought I'd read it. He went away for a second time and prayed, saying, oh, my father, if this cup may not pass away from me except I drink it, well, thy will be done.
[42:08] So it's not a, it's, it's, it's submitting. It's about me saying whatever God wants. Now, you don't know what God wants unless you get in the book. You don't know what God wants unless you fill your heart with the truth.
[42:20] And it won't matter what God says unless you humble yourself enough to say, God, whatever you're saying, I'm going to do it. I'm just going to obey you. Can I get an amen right there? Would you admit you got a little bit of a pride problem?
[42:32] Come on, come on, tell the truth. Would you admit that it's like, I hope them young people listen to this. And that people over in that section, they sure need this, but I'm all right. No, no, don't do that.
[42:45] Humble yourself and say, I need God to deal with me. And then when you hear truth, humble yourself and say, I will obey. I will submit.
[42:56] I'll tell you this. A lot of what God might want might not be what you think is best, but he knows what's best. And if you'll submit, you'll have victory. Let me finish with this. I hurt so bad.
[43:10] Because I've been hurt. I've hurt where you're hurting. I've had problems in my family. I've had problems in my own life in every way you can imagine. I think I probably had to deal with junk just like you have.
[43:22] And so I've had all kind of junk happen. I've had things, terrible things happen. And I've watched God work in my life and bring me through that. And then I sit in a room and I listen to you and you tell me your problems.
[43:33] And I'm like, oh, oh, I know what you're feeling. I've been there. I know how it feels to be so alone. I know what how it feels to have no answers.
[43:45] I know what how it feels to be like, I'm not even sure. I know what it feels like to be so discouraged and so depressed. And it's like, I just can't go on. I know what that feels like just like you do.
[43:57] And I know the answer, though. And I know God got me through it. And I hurt because I want you to hear me. I want to help you get through it.
[44:10] Humble yourself. Humble yourself. Just admit it. You've been trying to put on a show and act like you're so good, but you know you're not. You know you're not this great person.
[44:21] You act like you are. You know, when we get up and get ready to leave our... This morning, I went by McDonald's to get my early morning breakfast. And I had a rough day.
[44:32] I walked in. The first thing, the young lady behind the counter looked at me and said, Boy, you ain't been out of bed long. Well, not really, ma'am. Just about 30 minutes long enough to get up and take a shower and get dressed and come here.
[44:44] I'm like, man, I must really be looking pretty bad today. Amen. Sometimes some of the men in the church come in the office and say, You all right? You don't look that good. Thank you. Appreciate you too. And then I sat down on my Diet Coke.
[44:55] I know I was supposed to drink coffee, but you get your caffeine your way. So I got my Diet Coke and had on my white shirt. Another white shirt that's in the office. And I put my straw in and I go...
[45:05] And there's holes inside of my straw. She used Diet Coke all over my shirt. Huh? You know, but I love you.
[45:15] I know where you live. I've been there too. I want some help. You want help? Help. He's got it for you. Humble yourself and submit. Let's just say to God, won't you humble yourself at an altar today and say, God, I have been kind of arrogant and proud and thinking I know everything and thinking I can do everything.
[45:37] I have been putting on my double face. You know, I just don't have another one. That's why the girl at McDonald's was like, if you had a better face, you should have brought it. Huh? And then I came to church and I went in the bathroom.
[45:48] I'm wiping my eyes, trying to make them maybe look like I'm more awake. I'm cold water. Because you know what we do? We leave the house. At the house, we're all beat and whipped and defeated. But we get to the door, we put on that face, that false face, don't we?
[46:01] I've been up for 12 hours and I'm feeling great. How you doing? Wonderful. Top of the morning to you.
[46:11] But in the inside, I'm feeling like, if you only knew where I lived, if you only knew Coke was on my shirt, just so I could go. Hmm?
[46:26] Take off that face. Humble yourself. And ask God to work. Thank you. Stop. Start. Soy sauce. Stop. Om hotsp Passion. Levi Mont��wy. Marcelo Pal 내� – Mambo Swick Pro. Alguyen macht Spoken emails. Tenant�라луja.
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[46:46] Oiena' comunic Morrison chanel roger me pride. It's important. Pomona's sorry. fürsat送 aan ostrok. You can hear it. And ask God to show and select it whenever you know, it's not what I can hide down.