The Church of Eleven22 - Saturated 2019 - Friday: Pastor JR Vassar

Episode Date: September 13, 2019

J.R. Vassar is the lead pastor of Church at the Cross in Great Vine, Texas. When asked to recount the events of his wedding day, he shared. When I married my wife, Ginger, Spice in my life, when we got married, I, in a sense, worshipped her. I didn't bow down to her and sing songs to her like she makes me do it at home, but I did, in a sense on that day, worship her. He's also an acclaimed author, who, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, holds the record for the longest book title ever imagined. of you, your interest has been piqued already. Glory hungry. God, the gospel, and our quest for something more.

By J.R. Vassar. Perfectly concise and to the point, deep within the pages of this abbreviated projection of his inner conscience, you'll find golden nuggets of wisdom like this. Promise you won't get mad. I'm going to tell you something, but promise you won't get mad. Just know you're going to be considered somewhat of a freak, and you need to be okay with that. And you can tweet that.

Everything Pastor J.R. does, from his leadership at church at the cross to the way he fathers his children is for the glory of God only, only. Most of you don't struggle with being a people pleaser, right? It's just me that struggles with that. So stand to your feet and give a big 1122 welcome to Pastor J.R. Vassar. That's a lot of fun. Well, I have never been introduced that way before, ever. And now all my jokes are gone because those were... Listen, I've been so impressed with the people of this church and the leadership of this church, the spirit of this church. Well, what an amazing time of worship tonight. I feel like we could go home and be really filled already.

But you have some amazing leaders who are humble, who seek the Lord and whom the Lord is blessing. So what a great privilege it is to be here with you guys tonight. If you have a Bible, turn to James chapter four. James chapter four. We're going to be in reading in verse four. James chapter four verse four. James is not going to pull any punches with us tonight. He's going to write out of the gate here in verse four.

Use some really challenging language with us. but he's also going to help us. So let's hear what the Lord says to us tonight. Verse four, you adulterous people, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God? Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the scripture says, he yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us?

but he gives more grace. Therefore, it says, God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Submit yourselves, therefore, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your heart, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourself before the Lord, and he will exalt you. Thanks be to God for His Word. You know, I believe that many people, and in particular, many Christians live, not all, not even most, but many live defeated lives. Their faith feels somewhat irrelevant to the rest of their life. Doesn't have a big impact on their lives, their marriage,

their work, their relationships. They experience continual setbacks. It's like two steps forward, but three steps back. They struggle with the same sins over, and over and over again for years and years and years. They have the same harmful patterns, the same negative thinking, the same discouragement. And some are constantly giving into fear, constantly giving into anxiety, constantly giving into anger, unforgiveness, bitterness, envy, lust. They're plagued with a fear of man and rarely go public with their faith for fear of how people might respond to them or how they might be ridiculed or the face they may lose among other

people they lack supernatural power in their life they lack consistent joy that very little vision for what god wants to do in them and through them to advance this kingdom and the world and they just go through life business as usual living deflated and defeated lives and it's understandable because the scriptures never give us the impression that the Christian life is easy. Can I get some help here? I like that. You're actually responding and interacting with me. All right, this is great. You need to teach our people at Church of the Cross how to do that. In fact, the Christian life is actually depicted as a war. It's a strenuous battle. It's this constant conflict. And you have three great enemies that are doing everything they can

to lead you into a defeated and deflated life. The Bible says that we're up against the world, falling human society, this world in rebellion against God, a world that's hostile towards God. Jesus said this world hated me, and it's going to hate you. The world has its own value system,

its own priorities, its own desires, its own pursuits, and it's constantly trying to squeeze you into its own mold, telling you what you should think, how you should live, what you should value, what you should pursue,

what you should love, what you should look like, what you should drive where you should live, how you should act. Constantly trying to squeeze you into its mold. It entices you with its pleasures, and it applies pressure and opposition against you trying to kill your convictions and lead you away from God. The Bible says you're also up against your own flesh. Sometimes we're our own worst enemy.

The flesh, our corrupt human nature that desires independence from God, and exercises is an influence over us and actually wars against the Spirit of God who lives inside of us. If you're a believer in Jesus today, the Holy Spirit lives inside of you. And the Spirit has desires. And when we walk according to the Spirit's desires, we bear a life of love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness and faithfulness and gentleness and self-control. All these things that you know deep down you want because you like it when you see it in others. and yet the flesh wars against the spirit.

And the flesh, every time the spirit awakens desires in you and you begin to move forward, the flesh tries to draw you back and pull you down. The downward pull of sin, the downward pull of our own flesh battling against us, leading us to commit works of the flesh, deeds of the flesh, like lust and anger and factions and divisions and sexual immorality and all. and on. And the scripture tells you're up against the devil himself. I believe that there's a devil. Jesus said there was a devil. You can't look at what's going on throughout the history of the world, all the atrocities, injustices, genocide, all this kind of thing you've seen, and not believe in a devil.

The supernatural being of immense power, not equal to God, but powerful and resist God, a fallen angel who seeks to bring ruin and destruction upon our lives. He has a host of demons in his service. They tempt us. They entice us. They oftentimes harass and terrorize us. They can even enslave us, afflict us, deceive us. And Satan is always accusing us that we're not worthy of God's love.

And if you don't think you're worthy of God, not worthy of God's love, you won't pursue God. And so the enemy wants to drive us away from God. And these three enemies are worthy of God. working in tandem to keep us in sin and bondage and defeat. And there's a lot of Christians who've befriended the world, who've given into the desires of the flesh, and who continually give up ground to Satan in their lives so that live in bondage, addiction, inconsistency, no joy, fear, anxiety, dread,

self-hatred, guilt, and fear. And they live defeated lives. And maybe, maybe. When the drums stop and the keyboard stop and the lights change and all the excitement of worship and singing of the greatness of God, all that begins to go silent. Deep in your heart, you can resonate with that. Yeah, I feel that struggle.

Here's good news for us tonight. Jesus makes it possible for us to live a life of victory. We don't have to live defeated lives under the ten of the ten. tyranny of these enemies. Now, without Christ, we're completely vulnerable to these things. The scripture says that we're walking after the course of this world, according to the spirit that's now at work in the sons of disobedience, that we're living under the influence of the world, the flesh, and the devil. But when you, if you're in Christ tonight, this is all changed. If you are in Christ tonight, in other words, if you've come to believe that Jesus Christ really

as the Son of God? The eternal son of God who took on flesh and dwelt among us, lived the sinless life, and took our sin upon himself and went to the cross and died in our place. Baring our sin, our guilt, our shame, the judgment that you and I deserved. Died in our place to pay the penalty for our sin was buried. On the third day rose again, ascended into heaven where he's at the right hand of God, ruling and reigning him a one day return, and you have thrown yourself upon his mercy. The scripture says that you are forgiven to.

declared righteous before God, adopted into his family, made a citizen of his kingdom, and are indeled with the Holy Spirit. If that's you, if you're a believer in Jesus, a dramatic change has happened in your life that says you no longer have to live under the tyranny of these enemies and you don't have to live a defeated life. In fact, Jesus' death and resurrection, his ascension and the outpouring of His Holy Spirit into the hearts of God's people has made it possible for you to do. to live in an entirely new way.

In fact, the consistent testimony and tone of the Bible when it comes to our experience as followers of Jesus is not one of defeat and discouragement, but one of overwhelming victory. You read through the scripture, that's the soundtrack that's playing. Paul says that Jesus always, how often? Always leads us in triumphant procession. Jesus said, in this world, you're going to have trouble. Can I get some help here? right we're going to have a little bit of that challenges temptations hardships hardships suffering

trial failure even in the face of all that he leads us in triumphal procession and he says you're going to have trouble but fear not i have overcome the world now that word overcome is an interesting word it's the greek word nicao i tell you that to sound smart the noun form is nike is that sound familiar to anybody. Nike, that's right. The word means victory to conquer to overcome. So Nike has taken that word and basically said if you wear our shoes, you will conquer and win. Now, I just want to tell you, that ain't true. I, just to let you in on my life a little bit, I'm pretty slow. I don't think I could outrun a pregnant hobbit. I'm very slow. And you can put me in a pair at Nike, Nike, whatever you want to call them. I'm not getting faster.

I'm not going to win, I'm not going to triumph, I'm not going to conquer. But Nike understands that word. This means to conquer, to overcome, to be the victor. And this word is used multiple times in the scripture to explain our experience, describe our experience as Christians. Listen to what it says in 1st Corinthians 1557. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Victory, Nacao. No, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us, Romans 837.

than conquerors. That's a heightened, intensified form of the word, Hupo Nicao. It means like hyper conqueror. We are more than conquerors. First John 214. I write to you, young men, because you're strong and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome Nicao, the evil one. First John five, four and five, for everyone who's been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory, same word, that overcomes the world. And this is the victory, same word that overcomes the world our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world, except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

Over and over and over and over in the Bible, it says that you and I who are in Christ tonight are victorious. We overcome. We're more than conquerors. We've overcome the evil one. Our faith brings us victory. Revelation chapter 2 and 3, Jesus addresses seven churches. Historical churches, and in each of these churches,

every single one of them, he addresses true believers who persevere to the end as the ones who conquer Nicao, the same Nika word. Throughout those two chapters, here are the things that these Christians conquer. They conquer temptation, false teachers, persecution, satanic opposition, slander, sexual allurements, greed, apathy, and worldliness. All of it is in their face and they overcome it. They grow. They progress. They hold fast. They endure. They endure. They They live fruitful, faithful lives and joyful lives to the glory of Christ. They overcome. That's the tone and the atmosphere of the Christian life.

Overcoming our enemies and living victoriously. Jesus wants you to conquer. He wants you to live a victorious life. And maybe there are some here tonight who feel like you're in a losing battle against these spiritual enemies. You feel like you're giving into the world. It's squeezing you into its mold. You think like the world thinks.

You live how the world lives. You value what the world values. You pursue what the world pursues. You're giving into your own flesh to lust and greed and bitterness and anger and jealousy and pride. And maybe you feel harassed and afflicted by the enemy. Jesus wants you to experience victory over these things. In James chapter 4, James is going to address some Christians who are living somewhat defeated lives, and he's going to call them into victory.

But he's going to say this, if you're going to be victorious, you have to take some action. You have to meet God's conditions for living a victorious life. You actually have to do something here. And I want to walk you through this text and show you what James says you have to do. if you're going to be victorious over the world of flesh and the devil, what do you have to do? And here's the first thing. If you're taking notes, you can jot this down. Number one, you have to pursue intimacy with God.

Pursue intimacy with God. Notice what James says in verse 5. He says, do you suppose it is to no purpose that the scripture says he yearns jealously over the spirit that he is made to dwell? well in us. What James is saying there is that God fills a jealous love for you and me, that he jealously yearns over us. It's a picture of God's great intense love for his people. In both the Old Testament and New Testament, the picture of God's relationship with

his people is that of husband to bride. And he has a jealous, holy, intense love for his. people. He is passionate about his people. He's passionate about their love for him and their faithfulness to him. And God knows this, and we know this. He has a rival for our hearts, doesn't he? It's the world. The world. James says it's like a seductive lover trying to lure us away from God into an adulterous relationship with itself. The world is constantly trying to lure us away from God, this adulterous relationship where we cheat on God to enter into this intimacy with the world. James says that it's also like a fun, wild, crazy friend who initially we find interesting.

And that friend is wooing us away from our loyalty to God into hostility towards God. So James says, if you're going to be a friend of the world, if you're going to be a lover of the world, it's going to make you an adulter before God. If you're going to be a friend of the world, it's going to make you an enemy of God. And so what James is telling us is that in the end, the world's a hateful lover and a terrible friend.

The world ends up when you love it, when you befriend it, it leaves you feeling broken, dirty, ashamed, guilty, and eventually bored and empty. You ever had a friend you thought, man, they're really intriguing. They're a lot of fun. Maybe this was in your college days, your early days.

And you kind of were intrigued in that relationship. They're wild. They're crazy. They're always pushing the envelope. And then eventually, you're like, this is getting old. This is a little boring in the end. That's what the world is like. It is a hateful lover and a terrible friend.

And it leaves us in a place of boredom and emptiness. Remember we planted a church in New York City back in 2005. Move there, my wife and two kids at the time. By the way, I need to update my bio. We've got four kids. I've got 19 down to two. Yeah. Yeah, I heard a couple you go, wow.

Yeah, you should have heard me when I found out. It was quite a surprise. Yeah, when my oldest graduated high school, my youngest was in diapers, which is crazy. When my youngest graduates high school, I'll be in diapers. That's how this whole thing's rolling out for my life. But we moved to New York City at the time. We just had two small children moved there, basically parachuted in, started a church out of our apartment. And our two little kids were of no help to us, tried to teach the 17-month-old how to use QuickBooks.

That did not work out. They just, it's just me and my wife trying to do this. And we started meeting people, and by God's grace, a church began. And we had a young lady who began to attend our church, and she was absolutely beautiful. She had moved to New York City. She was the administrative assistant for the president of an international multi-million dollar corporation. You would know if I told it to you. She was making a lot of money, and she was living the white.

wild New York City lifestyle. Ended up meeting a guy, moving in with him. And whatever you can imagine is the New York lifestyle, that's what she gave herself to. And eventually, she ended up being completely broken and bored over the whole thing. She sat down with me at a cup of, at a coffee shop, we had a cup of coffee, and she just poured out her heart. And she said, I'm just broken and empty. And by the grace of God, she began to discover the jealous love of God. that he yearned over her for relationship with her.

And when she began to taste the jealous, yearning love of God for her, it broke the power of the world over her. She realized the world's a terrible friend and a hateful lover. She turned her life over to Jesus Christ. You know what? She's married to a pastor now. Isn't that amazing? Remarkable.

The only thing that broke the power. of the world over her heart was to see the passion and jealous love with which God loved her. The only way you overcome the world is by being overcome by the love of God. That's what's going to do it. It's when a greater love ends up dispelling every competing love. When you come to understand the depths of God's love that he is jealous for you, that he yearns for you, that he is not a hateful lover and he is not a terrible friend, that's when the power of the world gets broken. but here's what I'm convinced of.

I'm convinced that many Christians, in fact, maybe most Christians, are insecure before God. They're not truly convinced that God jealously yearns for them. They're not truly convinced that God deep down loves them. In fact, they think that God tolerates them. They think that God just watching them, waiting to catch them, making a mistake. They think that God has favorites, but they're not one of them. They don't sense that God really deep down delights in them. We have a saying at our church,

insecurity is the enemy of intimacy. Let me give an example of this. When I met Ginger, my wife now, would be married 25 years next summer. When I met her, we were sophomores in college. We started hanging out, and I was smitten with her. And about three months after hanging out with her, I sat her down, and I voiced to her how I felt about her. And she did not reciprocate.

Now, Joby, I know you have no idea what that's like. did not reciprocate. And it wasn't even that she, she denied me or turned me down. She just smiled and said, thank you. I'm like, that's the worst thing you could do to me. I would rather you look me in the eye and go, thanks for sharing that, but I hate you and wish you were dead. I would appreciate that because then at least I know. I know how you feel, but to simply smile at me and say thanks, leaves me in an awkward situation. I have no idea how you feel about me. And because of that, I know, I know. ever felt confident in that friendship with her anymore. I used to call her up and ask her to go to lunch. I wouldn't call her anymore and ask her to do lunch. I don't know how she felt about me.

And that insecurity was a barrier to me pursuing deeper intimacy with her. And many of us live in that relationship with God like that. Because we're not absolutely confident in how he feels about us, it's a barrier to us pursuing intimacy with him. Why would you approach a God for intimate friendship when you're not certain how he feels about you? In fact, John Owen said it like this, unless you are convinced in the Father heart of God that He loves you and delights in you, you will flee from Him. You will not come to Him. And some of us need to wake up to the love that God has for us. If you're in Christ, the Bible says that He delights in you. He rejoices over you with loud singing. You are the apple of his eye, that his heart yearns. He yearns.

over you. He is a God who loves you. I love, I love baseball and I love, it's a hard season for me as a Ranger fan. But when you go to the games, one of the coolest things is the walk-up music when the player picks the walk-up music and he struts up to the plate with that walk-up music playing in the background. And all my ears of going to the Ranger game or any professional baseball game, I have never seen anyone walk up to the tune of Rainbow Connection by Kermit the Frog, ever. Never seen any NBA team take the court to Ave Maria. never seen it in my life. You want something like Welcome to the jungle, thunderstruck. You want something like that, right? Because it sets the tone, it sets the atmosphere, sets the mood for you're

at bat or for the game you're about to play. Did you know you've got some walk-up music when it comes to your relationship with God? When you begin to pray or open up a Bible, you've got some walk-up music playing in your head. And if it's not this, that God loves you, he delights in you. pleasure in you. He doesn't take pleasure in everything we do, but he takes pleasure in the relationship. He rejoices over you. If that's not the walk-up music that's playing in your heart in your mind, you will not pursue him for intimacy. And some of you have walk-up music of fear, you have walk-up music of guilt, you have walk-up music of shame, you have walk-up music of God's not interested in me, you believed all these lies. James says, he yearns for you. And if you

will believe that. In Jesus Christ, you will approach Him clothed in the righteousness of Christ. You will approach God with such a confidence. You'll say, I am here, God. I am here. And God will say, I've been waiting for you. Tozer said, he waits to be wanted, but you will not want him until you see how much you're wanted. James says, you've got to draw near to God. And he'll draw near to you. That's what you, his presence, the loving, yearning, jealous love and presence of God. That's what breaks the affection of the world in your heart. Here's the second thing, James, says, you've got to submit to God. See, it's easy to think in terms just of intimacy, but there's also that obedience and submission. You want the power of the world and the flesh broken in your life.

You've got to submit to God. If you want a victorious life, you need the help of God. Can't do this in your own power. You need the help of God. But here's what God says. He opposes The proud. Do you see that in James 4? He opposes the proud. He's not going to help the proud. God hates pride. He absolutely detests pride. Self-reliant, self-governing, self-exhaulting. I'm going to do it my way. I'm going to do it for my name. I'm going to do it in my strength. God hates pride. Pride has to have its own way. Pride doesn't submit to God's authority or commit oneself to doing God's will, and God opposes that. He won't bless the proud. The Lord warns that pride comes before destruction. In the end, God will bring the haughty and the prideful low. And so God says,

you can either let me humiliate you in the end, or you can humble yourself even now. This is how we enter the Christian life, isn't it? We had to humble ourselves and call upon the Lord. Realize I can't save myself. It's not my merit. It's your mercy. I throw myself upon your mercy. I humble myself before you. It's how you live the Christian life. Staying low before the Lord and total submission to him. If we don't do that, God will bring us low. To humble yourself means that I'm going to submit myself fully to God. It means I'm going to bring myself under his authority. I'm going to commit to do his will, and I'm not going to resist his ways. I had a conversation with a lady who was returning to the Lord, and here was her language. Her language is about

I just want to feel God again. But in her language, I didn't hear. I heard I want to feel God, but I didn't sense that she feared God. I want to feel God, but I didn't sense I want to submit to God. This is what James is saying we have to do. We've got to submit to God, bring ourselves under God's authority by yielding to His Word, meaning I'm going to abandon my will and commit to do His will, even when I initially disagree with it.

Anyone ever disagreed with God in the room? Can I take a survey real quick? Yeah. Humility says, God, I'm willing to lose every argument with you. Every argument. When I read something in your word and I initially flinch at it, disagree with it, or something in me rises up against it, I want to lose every argument with you. Because there's some things I've read in the Bible that, frankly, I'm not comfortable with.

Love your enemies. Turn the other cheek. give until it hurts. Humility and submission says to God, I want to lose every argument with you and bring myself under your word. And there's a difference between being submitted to God and being submissive to God.

Sometimes you can submit to God with your teeth clenched and your fist clenched. Maybe you're sitting down, but you're still standing up in your heart. A submissiveness is God at the touch of your finger. I'm going to yield myself to you. That's a submissive heart. And when we do that, when we humble ourselves,

the scripture says that he gives grace. He helps, he exalts. He releases his power, his favor, and his blessing into our lives, and we find a strength that we didn't have on our own. God gives grace. He gives help. He exalts the humble.

So if you want to be victorious in your Christian life, live your life submitted and low before the Lord, humble before him, losing every argument with him, bringing yourself under his word, not just wanting to feel God, but living in the fear of God and submitting yourself to God. James says, pursue intimacy with God and submit to God. And then he gives us this third thing.

He says, confess and repent of all your known sin. This is how we overcome the flesh. Confess and repent of your sin. James says, cleanse your hands, you sinners, purify your heart, you double-minded, be wretched, mourn, weep, let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to gloom. We have to confess and repent of our sin. We have to deal with our sin.

We have to humble ourselves first, though. If you don't humble yourself first, you won't truly confess your sin. You'll try to save face and you'll make excuses. In fact, if you don't humble yourself, you can't truly confess. Confession means agreeing with God about my sin. It means being very specific

and naming my sin and calling it what it is. Saying, God, I did this. and it was sin. If you don't humble yourself and you're trying to save face and make excuses, you'll call your sins problems. I have a problem with exaggeration. No, you commit the sin of lying, and you have to call it for what it is. You know, sometimes I have a problem with overeating. No, you commit the sin of gluttoning, and we have to call sin for what it is, or it never loses its power in our life. And it's not sins.

It's not problems. It's sin. It's rebellion against God. So we have to specifically name those things. And we have to agree with God about them. And we have to adopt God's attitude toward them. That's why James said, mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning, your joy to gloom.

In other words, adopt God's attitude towards that sin. Learn to hate those sins. You'll never repent of sins. truly repent of sins you don't hate. Now, repentance is an act of the will. We repent and ask God to give us the emotions that accompany that repentance that would be in line with his heart. We want to name those sins and get our heart in harmony with God's heart about those sins. And one of the ways we do that is by seeing what it did to Jesus.

And asking God to give us the grace to hate it, renounce it, and repent of those things that would be done with him. But notice what James says. about truly, truly confessing your sins. He said, cleanse your hands. That means I'm repenting of the action. I have to name it. Say, God, I did this, and I am sorry, and I repent of that sin. Forgive me.

And then he says, purify your hearts. That's dealing with the motives and the desires behind the action. I can confess the act of lying, but I also need to confess the desire and motive that was under that lie. Why did I lie? Was I trying to present myself as something better than I am? was I cowering to the fear of man? Was I afraid of letting someone down so I lied? Was it the idol of man that moved me to lie? I've got to deal with the motives and the hearts. It's not enough to say

cleanse my hands. I've got to purify the heart. I've got to deal with the motives and the intention of the heart. I've got to ask God to reveal to me. God, what's behind that? Because when you deal with the motive, it's no longer I'm dealing with the fruit, but I'm severing the root. And that's when the power of sin gets broken in our life. James says, cleanse your hands, purify your hearts, and he calls them double-minded. I'm on again and off again with God. James says there's no place for that. In verse 8 of chapter 1, he says it's this double-minded idea is doubting God. We're doubting him. It's like Eve. The enemy led her to doubt the goodness of God, and that doubting God led to her rebellion against God. And we sin because we doubt the goodness of God.

God. We enter this momentary lapse where we don't trust God. We don't believe he's good. We don't believe he's for us. And so because we're double-minded and we doubt him, we give in the sin. So James says, deal with the action, deal with the heart, and deal with the mind. Believe in the goodness of God. Submit yourself to the goodness of God. Trust the goodness of God. And as we do that, becoming single-minded, fully trusting God's character and promise to us, the power of sin begins to get broken. The flesh starts to lose its power in our life. We confess our sin.

He forgives our sin, and we fill the power of those sins broken. We're ready to receive the fullness of the Holy Spirit and walk in strength and walk in victory. So James says, deal with your sin. Confess it before the Lord. Stop making excuses. Stop naming it a problem. Call it what it is. Adopt God's attitude towards it.

Get your heart in harmony with His about it. confess the act, confess the motive, confess your doubting of God, and see that sin broken in your life. Confess it to God, but also confess it to other people. There is no way to be prideful while confessing sin to someone. Did you notice that? Husband, do you want to get humble before your wives? Confess your sins to her. Well, you cannot be prideful when you're confessing sin.

Here's the last thing James says. You want to be victorious? you have to resist the devil. Resist the devil. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. We have a very real enemy in Satan. He fiercely hates you. He wants to lure you away from God.

He wants to bring pain and misery into your life. He wants to rack your mind with worry and despair and fear. He wants to lead you into sin and rebellion against God. He wants to accuse you constantly of your failure, so you feel unloved by God. He wants to tempt you, and he will afflict you with negative thoughts, negative emotions, fears,

and even sometimes physical pain. When you read through the Gospels, you see people who are struggling with physical pain, and it's because of a demonic attack in their life. A woman bound up for 18 years with a bad back, and it was a demonic attack. Deaf, mute, demons. So a person afflicted by this demon was deaf and mute.

Now, not all sickness is because of demonic attack, but in the scripture, we see that demons oftentimes will afflict people with physical pain. Some of the deepest struggles you have have actual spiritual forces that work behind them. And it's not going to be just technique that actually help you overcome that. You've got to actually deal with the spiritual forces that are at work behind those struggles. and many Christians live defeated lives because they've given up ground to the enemy, and they're not even aware of the fight they're in. This is why confession and submission is so key.

We confess and repent because unrepentantantant and sin can give the enemy a foothold in our life. Ephesians 4, 26, it says, in your anger, don't sin. And don't let the sun go down on your anger, and don't give the enemy a foothold, a place, an open door in your life. When you do that, you remove yourself from the umbrella of Christ's authority and can leave yourself vulnerable to demonic attack. And there are a lot of Christians who are afflicted by the enemy. If you're struggling with the same sin over and over and over and over again, chances are

you've opened up your life to the enemy and you are being harassed with temptation by demonic forces. And you can try and try and try, but until you deal with the spiritual forces, at work behind that struggle, you're not going to overcome that struggle. Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, if you can see it, and ain't your enemy. It's not against flesh and blood. It's against principalities and powers and spiritual forces of this present darkness. That's what's been unleashed against you. And so some of our deepest struggles that seem, if you're struggling with desires to harm yourself, chances are you're being harassed by spiritual force. of darkness. If you are stumbling over the same sin over and over and over and over again,

you might be under attack and oppression by spiritual forces of darkness. And James says, you've got to resist the devil. And the good news is if you're a Christian, because of Christ, you don't have to live in fear of our enemy. Jesus dealt a decisive blow to Satan. You sing about it tonight in one of your original songs. At the cross, Jesus stripped Satan of his weapons, put him in all demonic powers to open shame, and at the resurrection and ascension sealed his total victory over Satan. In fact, if you got your Bible, turn to Ephesians. Let's look at this real quick. Ephesians chapter 1, verse 19. Paul's going to tell this church, I'm praying for you to know some things. I want you to know some things.

And what does he want them to know? He says in verse 19, I want you to know, what? We want you to know what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might, that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead, and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and above every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come. And he put all things, how many things? All things under his feet and gave him his head over all things. How many things? All things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills him. all in all. Jesus, exalted to the right hand of the Father in heavenly places with everything under

his feet. Now, I want you to look at chapter 2, verse 4. But God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead on our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ Christ, by grace you've been saved, and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Jesus is the right hand of the Father in heavenly places in a position of authority and you are seated there with him, which means this, Jesus is sharing his authority with you. That's why Paul can tell the Romans, God will soon crush Satan under your feet because you're seated with Jesus in the heavenly places and everything is under your feet. You ever thought about that? Everything is under our feet. We need not be afraid.

James says, resist the devil and he will flee from you. That word flee means to take. take flight and run to avoid difficulty. Man, some of you need to give the devil some difficulty. Because he's sure been dishing it out to you, right? Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Stand your ground. That word resist. Stand your ground.

Oppose him because you have the authority of Christ. Did you know that Jesus rebuked and commanded Satan and demons? He told, listen, demons are noisy. And he told him. He said, be quiet. And they had to shut up. He told Satan at the wilderness temptation, be gone and Satan had to leave. He told demons, come out, and they had to come out.

They had to obey him. Did you know that if you stand in the authority that you have in Christ, you can resist, you can stand against, you can rebuke? You can even command the enemy to depart from you and stop harassing you, and the enemy must submit to you. Now, they don't go without a fight. But they have to flee. It's not going to be your power. It's not going to be your authority. It's Christ authority.

We have an area in Great Vine, Main Street, really cool area. Lots of tourists show up there. I want you to imagine for a moment I'm walking down Main Street, and someone comes up to me and says, if you have any liquids on you, I need you to take them out and set them down right here. I'm also going to need you to take off your belt and your shoes, and just for a couple seconds, I want you to hold your hands up like this. If someone said that to me, I go, you're crazy. I would go on the other side of the street.

I would tell someone. You need to go get that guy. But listen, someone told me to do that today, and I did it. I did it. I was standing there, and this guy said, if you've got any liquid, you're going to need to take them out and put them right here on this table. And I'm going to need you to take your belt and your shoes off. And I just did it.

You know why I did it? Because they had a badge on called the TSA. And behind them is an entire government with the authority to enforce what that person's telling me to do. I ever one preacher say it like this. If a traffic cop is standing at an intersection and he holds up his hand and a semi-truck stops, it's not because there's anything inherent in that cop that gives him the power to stop an oncoming semi. It's just that semi knows that standing behind that traffic cop is an entire government with the resources and authority to enforce what that traffic cop is saying to do.

Do you know that you have the kingdom of God, the government of Jesus standing behind you? You have all the power and the resources of the kingdom of God standing behind you. And the reason that a lot of Christians are afraid of what's in front of them, they don't know what's behind them. You are seated with Christ in the heavenly places, and he is shared. He's so generous. He's sharing his authority with you. And the scripture says that in the end, you're going to rule and reign with him. You're even going to judge angels.

Do you know who you are? And yet we cower, and we give up ground. and we fear. Did you know that you can say to the enemy out loud, I stand in the authority of Jesus and I command any demon trying to gain control over me to be gone from me. Now, when you hear accusations in your head, in the name of Jesus and his authority, I command every demonic voice to be quiet. And I believe the truth of the word of God. Stand your ground resist. Listen, Christians are tormented and afflicted by demons because they never rise up in the authority of Christ and resist them. They don't fight.

You are called to fight. Now, if you're going to fight, you've got to be in Jesus because some of them maybe in the room tonight, you don't have the kingdom of God behind you because you're not a citizen of the kingdom of God. You get into the kingdom of God through faith in Jesus Christ. And if you're not in his government, the scripture says, that you belong to the kingdom of darkness. When you became a Christian, God transferred you out of the kingdom of darkness

into the kingdom of his beloved son. And if you're in that kingdom, you have that authority and you've got to stand up and fight. Draw near to God. You can't resist Satan if you're not drawing near to God in worship and prayer and fasting. Worship's part of our warfare. Christian, you don't have to live defeated.

You don't have to live that way. You can come to God and you can believe, you can believe with all your heart that he jealously yearns over you. He loves you and let his love dispel your love for the world. You can submit yourself to him, lose every argument, come under his rule, come under his reign, come under his word, and submit your heart to him. Confess every known sin, renounce it, repent of it, name it, don't excuse it, don't call it something else, name it, get your heart in harmony with God's heart about it, turn from it, receive his forgiveness, and the fullness of the spirit and stand your ground in the authority of Christ and resist every foe. I want to pray for us to that end.

Would you pray with me? And what I want to do is I want to give you an opportunity tonight. Maybe you're, maybe you feel like you've been in a losing battle. And maybe tonight the Spirit of God is breathing hope into you. And I want to say, if you're here tonight and you feel like you've been living, defeated. I'm going to ask you to do something. I'm going to ask you.

I want to lead us through some prayers. And if you're saying tonight, I need to come out of this defeat. Would you just stand and let me lead you through some prayers? Just where you're right, just stand up and hold your arms, hold your hands out before the Lord tonight. Let's get free tonight. Let's see some chains broken. Let's see some hearts renewed. Oh, God, you're in.

this place, your Holy Spirit stirring among us, just like he stirred over a dark and void earth and brought cosmos out of it. You're going to bring life and beauty and order tonight by the working of your Holy Spirit. So would you just hold out your hands before the Lord? And would you just affirm his love for you? Just affirm his love for you. Just say thank you God for loving me. you yearn jeaned jealously over me break the power of the world over my heart God

pour your love into my heart more and more by the Holy Spirit thank him that he loves you that he delights in you he doesn't tolerate you he rejoices over you with loud singing affirm his love for you and commit to him to pursue intimacy with him

you submit to his authority in your life tonight the ways you've argued with him in the argument tonight, lose it. Give up. Submit and surrender. Confess every known sin to him. The Holy Spirit's bringing it to your mind right now. You don't have to think about it. The Holy Spirit's bringing it to your mind right now.

Just confess that openly to the Lord. Name it. Ask God to give you his heart, his attitude about it, and repent of it. Renounce it. forsake it and even now resist Satan maybe there's some chains it fills some bondage some addiction some anxiety some fear some desire for even self-harm right now resist Satan even now even now even now out loud under your breath command every opposition and the authority of Jesus to be gone from you and cease. It's oppression and affliction in your life and thank Jesus for the victory. You can have a seat. These are things we have to do regularly. Maybe you're here tonight.

You've never crossed the line of faith. You've never put your faith in trust in Jesus. You've never been adopted into the family of God, never became a citizen of the kingdom because you've never committed your life to Christ. And tonight you'd like to say, I want to commit myself to Jesus. There'll be some folks down here who would love to pray with you about that. And so towards the end of our evening, you just feel free to come and they'll pray with you. They'll help you take that step of faith. Let me pray for us. Father, we love you. We love you. We love you. You are good. You're glorious. You are compassionate. You're slow to anger. You're abounding in steadfast love. You are generous. You've given us every resource.

we need to live the life you've called us to live. We thank you that even while we were your enemies, you gave your son Jesus and he died for us. Thank you that through faith in him, we're forgiven, declared righteous in your sight, adopted into your family, and you love us just as much as you love your son, Jesus. Thank you for the gift of your Holy Spirit. Thank you for the abiding presence of the Spirit in our life. Thank you that he bears witness with our spirits children of God. Thank you that your love is constantly being poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit whom you've given us.

Thank you for the power of the spirit. Thank you for the authority of Christ. Thank you that we don't have to live in chains. Thank you we can walk in victory. God, thank you for your word. Oh, God, give us an appetite for us. Incline our heart to it and not towards selfish gain. make us people who pant for your testimonies,

that we would long for it like a baby longs for milk, that by it we could grow up in our salvation. That we'd be strong and overcome the evil one because the Word of God abides in us, awaken us. We want to pursue intimacy with you in your word and in prayer. God for this church, thank you for this church. What a great gift. We walk in victory when we walk with other believers.

believers. We grow wise as we walk with the wise. We burn hot for you as we get our life around other coals. And so God continue to pour your spirit out upon this church. Bless them with your presence. Bless them with your joy. God, be glorified. Be glorified. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.