The Church of Eleven22 - Week 11: Choose Who You’ll Serve

Episode Date: August 20, 2023

Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Draw near to this world and it will betray you.

Amen and amen. Church, if you got your Bible, grab them. We're going to be in James 4. We're going to pick it up in verse 4. As you're turning there, I got a couple of things to really celebrate. Last weekend in all of our campuses, we baptized 241 people. Amen? Something's happening around here. I mean, like really happening, okay? I've been doing this a minute. 30 years worth of minutes, however long that is. I can't do that kind of math. I need you to do me a favor, 722 both here in Flint, Island, if you have friends that attend 9 o'clock at any of our campuses, I needed to call them tonight and drag them with you to a Thursday night service next week. Because we are out of room at San Pablo and Fleming at 9 o'clock. We're out of parking. We're out of kid's space. And it's not a small place, you understand?

You know, my seat here in this room? There are 3,000 and 1 seats. You know why? The day of Pentecost and one more. That's why we did it that way. You think I'm kidding. That's an actual fact. All right?

I need you to guilt them, shame them, whatever you have to do to get them out of the, and you and bring them here with you on Thursday night because you guys are doing such a good job of praying for your one mores and inviting your one mores and God is in the saving business and he's doing his job, amen? And so that's just what's happening, okay? So far this year, over 1,400 people

have signified a first-time decision to call Jesus Christ their Lord and Savior. And it's August. And if you are a first-timer, come back next week. It's a little aggressive tonight. It's not my fault, man. It's not my fault, okay?

James, the brother of Jesus. I'm just going to unpack the words that he talked. And if you just jumped on board, it's kind of like coming in at the end of a movie. We're in the 11th week of this series. We've been studying the book of James. I don't have time to give you all of the context of what's going on here, but James can be a little aggressive, all right? I'm usually tender and sweet. James, real aggressive.

Here's James, I don't know why y'all laugh at me. James' primary issue. He's writing to a group of James. Jewish believers, so people that grew up Jewish, but they believe when Jesus died on the cross, he counted for them. They believe that Jesus is the son of man, the son of God, the Messiah. Okay? And yet, as James surveys the situation of the people that are calling themselves Christians or Jesus followers, his primary issue all throughout the book of James is this, you're not living what you're talking. Like with your mouth, you say that you're a Jesus follower, but with your life,

you ain't following Jesus. And they said, yeah, but we believe. He goes, oh, that's cute. The demons believe. But faith without works, ain't faith, is what he's saying. And then for the last several weeks, he went through a bunch of particulars, a bunch of examples. He talks about partiality. We would essentially call that favoritism or even racism today.

He talks about anger. He talks about the power of our words. He talks about fights and quarrels. All of those are specific examples. of the fact that their lifestyle and what they claim aren't matching up. Here's what it kind of reminds me of, man. When I was a kid, we used to rent movies. Listen, this is crazy.

We went to a store called Blockbuster. Unbelievable. Had a VHS cassette tape. Google it. It's the craziest thing. And when a new movie came out, bro, you had to get there quick. Or if you, or then sometimes, like if you were a kid, and you knew your parents were going to come later,

you had to hide it behind some documentary that nobody was going to watch. You know what I'm talking? Yeah, so anyway. So my brother and I, we used to love to get those kung fu movies. I don't know, you won't know this, but, bro, these kung fu movies. And they would be overdub. They were, like, filmed in Japan or something,

and there would be these English overdubs. And it would confuse you. You would watch it, and their lips would be doing one thing, and the words would be doing something else. You know what I'm talking about? And you're like, wait a minute, the audio doesn't match the video. Get it? James is saying the audio doesn't match the video.

Like I hear what you're saying with your mouth. And then I watch the things you're doing and these things are not the same. And he would call that not authentic faith. In our time together today, he's going to draw a line in the sand. He's going to be kind of like Joshua. When Joshua gathers the nation of Israel together and he says, choose for yourself this day whom you're going to serve. And you can serve the idols of the past of your forefathers, but as for me in my house,

we're going to serve the Lord. He draws a line in the sand. Here's how he starts it. You adulterous people. Crickets. It's all about timing, man. It's all about timing. You adulterous people.

Listen, he takes this very serious to man. Is there anything more serious than adultery? I know a bunch of you have walked through it. could there be anything more hurtful. There are very few things, right? If somebody did something to your kids, maybe that's a level that's different. Oftentimes, when we talk about sin, we only think about it from our point of view. Have you ever thought about idolatry?

Have you ever thought about sinfulness? Have you ever thought about when you claim to be a Jesus follower but then reject them with your lifestyle? What it's like from God's point of view? from his point of view, he equates it with adultery. It's devastating. We were in a covenant. Now, I'm not talking about a stumble. I'm not talking about a fall.

That's not what I'm talking about. I'm not talking about a struggle, right? Because we're going to struggle until we die. I'm talking about when we claim to love Jesus and then we reject him and say, yeah, but except this part because I do what I want with who I want when I want. Man, you want to read some graphic, graphic Bible. Read you some Ezekiel 23. You ever read it?

Ezekiel 23? I know you haven't. By the way, when I preach in big church, it is not a safe place for children. Just know that all, have I told you about our children's ministry? Here's why. Do you know what Ezekiel 2320 says? I don't think I can quote this on Sunday, but I'm just telling you Bible verses. And there she lusted after her lovers whose genitals were like that of a horse and whose admission was like that of a donkey. Get that one tattooed on your arm. It's a Bible verse. You're like, what? See, everybody's reading their Bible. Y'all don't pick up your Bibles ever. They were like, what the. Look it up, man.

All of Ezekiel 23 is about this, okay? There are two girls, and one is named O'Halla, and her older sister is named O'Hala back. Literally, that's not exactly how you say their names, but it's real dang close in Hebrew. O'Hala, that's one. And the whole chapter, according to the Bible, I don't make these words up, I don't normally talk like this,

take it up with Ezekiel. He says, and these two girls played the whore. That's what it says. It says whore about a hundred times in that chapter. chapter. And then it says, and they would lay in the bed with their man and dream and lust about their previous partners. And so God turned them over to these men and they ravaged them and killed them. And then he looks at Israel who had been worshipping idols and said, you're just like that. Devastating. Devastating. We don't take sin seriously enough. We don't take sin seriously enough. We don't

take our own sin seriously enough. James is going to take it real serious. He says, you adulterous people. He says, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? That word enmity means hostility. And now listen, man, when this was written in the first century, James didn't have friends, like we have friends. I mean, these are very close relationships.

Families would grow up with each other forever and ever for generations and generations. So your friends, like you knew, you knew them very, very, very well. Today, you know, we call friends people that we just like their fake pictures online. You know what I'm talking about? I'd be like, no, man, Ted's my friend. But where's he from? Ted, where are you from? You know what I mean?

What's he do for a living? Ted, what do you do for a living? That ain't, that's an acquaintance. And what James says, do you not know that deep abiding relationship, friendship with the world is hostility, is enmity with God? Now, have you been around church for a minute? or if you're a Tebow fan, you'd be like, wait a minute, I thought we're supposed to love the world. Dunn John 316 says, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever would believe in him would not perish but have everlasting life. Yes, it does say that.

But what it means is that for God so loved the people of this world that he sent Jesus on a rescue mission to save the people of this world. You see, what we are supposed to do is to love the people of this world. just as God has loved us, and what we are supposed to do is reject the values and the systems of this world. What the church has mostly done is reject the people of this world and adopt the systems and values of this world. This is what he's talking about here. Romans 12 says, do not be conformed to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind. It's a building term. If you've ever poured concrete, I know you have it, but if somebody has ever poured concrete, I know you have it,

but if somebody has ever poured you some concrete, then they build a form, and then you pour it in there, and the concrete takes the form or the pattern that you laid out. And he is saying, this world has a form, and do not pour yourself into this and take the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

You believe what the Word of God says, not what this world says. And I'm just going to tell you, if you get about an hour a week of the Bible and about 15 hours of Netflix, you will be conformed to the pattern of this world. And so John is going to say this in 1 John chapter 2. I talk about this all the time.

Like what does it look like to have friendship with the world and enmity with God? 1 John 2.15, John says this, do not love the world or do the things in this world. In other words, reject the systems and the values of this world. Do not love the world or do the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the ESV says the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life.

I like the KJV here, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. That's all that this world has to offer. It is not from the Father, but is from the world, and the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. Now, I've taught you about 100 million times that these are the only three lures or two. temptation that the enemy has. Lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life. And the enemy is like a good bass fisherman, right? And so if you're a good bass fisherman, even if you're not that good, you can catch some

stuff here in Florida, all right? And so what you do is you throw out like a crankbait, and it can be like lust of the eyes, and maybe he looks at it and he's like, nope, not doing it. And if it ain't working, you clip it off and you put something else on, a little top water plug, you know, boom, boom. And he may look at that and be like, nope, it ain't working. So you clip that off. and then you put like a plastic worm on there and just jiggle it, jiggle it, jiggle it, all right?

And then he looks at that and he's like, yes, no, got it. See what I'm saying? Because every lure has a hook. So that's primarily how I've looked at that verse, and it will help you in resisting the enemy in your own life. Like if the enemy was fishing for you, if you were your enemy, what kind of lure would you use? Well, pay attention to that because that's how he's going to try to trick you and trap you. However, what's also important is if this is all that the world, has to offer, which is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life,

then let me ask you this, is your lifestyle, does it look more like friendship with the world, or in alignment with what God says is the way to live? You may want to just pull your shoes off on this one so we can just, James can just step on all our toes. Lust of the eyes. Lest of the eyes is the desire to have. like I want something. You can be stuff, money, you know.

So let me ask you this. When it comes to money, do you do money God's way or the world's way? Do you do money, God's way or the world's way? There's three ways to look at money, man. Some people think, what's mine is mine. That's selfish. Some people think more is mine. That's real selfish.

Some people say, what's yours is mine. That's called stealing individually and socialism when the government gets involved, okay? God's way is what's mine is God's. That's called stewardship. So you've got selfish, stealing, or stewardship. Get ready to get offended. Ready? If you are not bringing your first and best to God,

if you are not bringing your tithe to the storehouse to God, which at least bottom level means the first 10% and you are trusting him for your provision and your protection, and you are trusting him for your satisfaction and your safety and security, if you were doing anything other than that, and I'm telling you, you were living the world's way. And then using all kind of Bible gymnastics and some goofy preacher you found online to justify how you can keep more for you.

The average Christian in America gives 2% to charity and feels super great about it. About to break their elbow, patting themselves on the back about how generous they are. And listen, and that's just the charity. That's not even giving to God. There's a big difference between gospel giving and good giving. You understand? See how it gets real quiet? Like, is he talking to me?

I don't know, man, am I? You see, when it comes, like, if you're first and best, if you're not trusting him with it, then you are doing money the way the world tells you to do money instead of the way God tells you to do money. And, and you're the most generous church maybe on the planet, and this church is probably in the best financial position of maybe any church of all the churches on the planet. So I'm not saying this because the church needs money, but I can't disciple the church. This is about you individually and your walk with God. Because friendship with the world, doing life the world's way is hostility against God.

And I'm telling you, the more defensive, you're like, well, hold on. Martha, get your things. We're leaving. I'm telling you, check yourself, okay? You can leave. No problem. No problem. If you have to leave right now, though, think about how terrible you're going to look.

So whatever. Okay. so. All right, let's keep going. Let's make it worse. Lust of the flesh. Do you do sex God's way or the world's way? Do you do sex, God's way or the world's way? Let me just tell you the reality is, I'm not going to give you all the statistics because they just don't. Christians are getting divorced at the same rate as non-Christians. Christians are sleeping together outside of marriage at the same rate as non-Christians. Christians look at porn at the same rate as non-Christians. There's no difference. A bunch of years ago, this guy named Greg Ligin, a dude

I know. He wrote a book called Un-Christian. And they measured the lifestyle differences between people that claim to be Christians and people that don't claim to be Christians. And he found that the only lifestyle variations that were significantly different between Christians and non-Christians is this. Non-Christians recycle more and Christians play the lottery less. Now, if you are our recent lottery winner, we would like to meet you and talk to you about your generosity to the Lord. James would say if there's no difference in your life, then there's going to be no difference in your eternal state either. That's going to be James, man.

See, the Bible says that we are to flee sexual immorality, and the Bible says that sexual immorality is any sex outside of marriage. And the Bible says that sex is only for married people, and marriage is still between one man and one woman. And that that's all there is is men and women. And there we are created in the image of God, man and woman. That's all they are. You don't get to switch teams halfway through it. And God made these rules up. Now, I'm not saying you can't do whatever.

We live in America, man. You can do whatever you want. By definition, you're your own Lord. All I'm saying is if you claim that Jesus is your Lord, then you've got to do it the way he says do it. And if you come to your Bible with a highlighter and some scissors, then you are trying to stand in judgment over the – look, man, there's two ways to read the Bible, okay? The way we read the Bible is we put ourselves under its authority, and when we disagree, we realize, uh-oh, there's a problem, and I'm the problem.

I must adjust to what God says because he's good and he knows better than I do. The other way to read the Bible is to put it down here. I can't stand on my Bible, I just can't do it, but is to stand on our Bible in judgment over it as if we know better than God. And if you do that, first of all, join the crowd. It's not just, I mean, it's entire denominations. The United Methodist Church just voted to just say that they know better than God in regards to sex and sexuality. I'm telling you, that denomination has enmity with God.

I'm not talking about all the, they're good, wonderful, we were planted by United Methodist Church. At Beach Church, that's some Bible-believing, Jesus-loving, gospel-preaching people. You understand what I'm saying? But any time, any time, a church, a denomination, a preacher, if you hear a preacher, Get away from the authority of the Word of God. Get your kids, get your stuff, and find a church that submits to the authority of the Word of God, okay? Now, how about this one?

The pride of life. Do you do status and pride and popularity God's way or the world's way? Here's a curveball. There's no way to do popularity God's way. There's no way to do getting noticed God's way. There's no way to do making a name for yourself God's way. Philippine's chapter two tells us that we should have the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus, who being in very nature God did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,

but made himself obedient and emptied himself as a servant. We live in a world that is just full of ourselves. See, here's what's crazy, man. If you're trying to be popular, what if I was growing up 100 years ago, you didn't even know of you were popular. Your mom would be like, you're so popular. I guess it must be popular. How would you even know if you're popular?

These days, we have a built-in mechanism where we can compare one another to see who's that has the most likes and the most influence. It's been a whole lot of time, effort and the energy towards these things. If we play in that game, we are a friend of this world, a friend of this world, which means there's enmity between us and God. There's distance. There's hostility between us and God. And I'm just talking to people that believe in Jesus right now.

If you don't believe in Jesus, man, hey man, you are the king of your own universe. Good luck, okay? Therefore, so he's called us adulterer so far. Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. All right, so just in the 10-minute diagnostic that I just laid out there with just money, sex, and pride, are you an enemy of God? Now let's be honest. If you're honest, and again, this is church, this is no place for honesty.

But if you legitimately evaluate yourself based on what 1st John 2, 15, and 16 say, you have to say, uh-oh, uh-oh, I think he's right. I think I care way too much about this world. I think there's so many areas of my life where I'm just kind of going with the flow. I have all these areas when it comes to the lust of the eyes

the stuff and money, and I just kind of look like everybody else. When it comes to sex and sexuality, I can get just caught up and just buying in to the cultural narrative instead of God's Word. When it comes to pride and I want people to look at me, I think I can be just like this world. It's why we're saying this old hymn, prone to wonder. Lord, I feel it prone to leave the God I love. Like, God, I love you in here, but I can wonder off and be an enemy territory and look

a lot like the enemy. You see the answer here, when I say, are you an enemy of God? The answer is yes. Oh, no, I'm an enemy of God, which is why I need a savior. That I can't earn my way into his family. I can't earn my way into his kingdom. And thank God that we serve a God that would send his son on a rescue mission, not to just rescue us when we're lost,

but to rescue a traitorous group of people that are taking shots at the king. and he would lay down his life and not only free us from our sin, but rip us out of the kingdom of darkness and plant us in the kingdom of light as his sons and daughters. So technically, theologically speaking, according to your so teriology, just Google those words, technically you were an enemy of God. And now you were a son or a daughter of the Most High King. So what James would say is, okay, you were an enemy of God. so why are you still acting like one?

I mean, when it comes to friendship with this world, why are you still acting like one? Does the audio match the video, does the things that you claim to believe match your lifestyle? And again, I'm just telling you what a lot of people do today, what a lot of people with the banner Christian,

they just come to the scriptures like Thomas Jefferson. You know what Thomas Jefferson did? He took his Bible, took a highlighter, and some scissors, cut out all the parts he didn't like. And it's literally, you can go to the Bible Museum. It's called the Thomas Jefferson Bible. And it's worthless, unless you're Thomas Jefferson.

But he is saying, I'm in charge. Look, you can be in charge. Jesus just isn't your Lord. And you were a friend of this world, and there is hostility between you and God. And he keeps going. He's going to dial it up a notch, okay? I don't know how you go from 10 to beyond 10, but he's going. Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the scripture

says, can you hear the sarcasm? I hope so, because James is laying it on as thick as he can. He's going to get a little snarky here. He, God, yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us. Here's what this means, okay? The moment you put your faith in Jesus Christ, not because of anything that you have done, but what Christ did on the cross, the moment where it dawns on you, that when Jesus died on the cross, somehow that counted for me.

when you surrender your life to Christ, a whole bunch of things happen. That Christ takes the penalty for your sin. You are imputed with his righteous, perfect life. In other words, the moment you believe in Jesus, when God looks at the cross, he sees you, and when he looks at you, he sees Jesus. That's what happens, okay? So you don't want fair. That's grace upon grace.

And then God sins the Holy Spirit as a deposit on inside of every single believer. So the Spirit of God lives in you. And He, God, yearns jealously over the Spirit that he has made to dwell in us. God is a jealous God. God is a jealous God. In fact, Exodus 3414 says this, for you shall worship no other God for the Lord whose name is jealous is a jealous God. Now, I don't know if you've ever heard Oprah's. like backwards testimony.

She grew up in church, and then she heard that God was a jealous God, and she said, how could I ever worship a God that's jealous? And I just want to be like, oh, to be so smart, how could you be so dumb? He's not jealous of you, Oprah. He's not up there going, I want a car. I want a car. That's not what he's doing. It's not jealous of you.

I wish I had my own network. No. He's jealous for you. There's a big, big difference. He's jealous for you. It's good that there is a right and righteous way to be jealous for someone. All right, like when we sit down at my house to eat, there's a chair at the head of the table. Guess who sits in it?

I do. We didn't vote on it. That's where I sit. Why? Because I'm the head of my house. That's where I sit. If I were to get home and Gretchen, after listening to last week's sermon, had a delicious set of dinner, you know, bacon rat fillet ready to go. and I walked in and she was in her seat

and Reagan was in hers and J.P. was in his and then some other fellow was in my seat. How do you think I would? Hey, Scooter, what are we doing here? He's like, well, we're just going to share, you know. In an effort for equity and diversity and unity, we just go all share.

I'm like, we ain't going to share. No, no, no, no, no. Why? Because that's my family. That's my seat. How about this? Do you want to make it worse? Ladies.

Ladies, look at me right here. Wives, if you're a wife, Everybody look at me. Look. Imagine you got home. Okay, imagine, or imagine you woke up in the morning, and you opened up your bathroom, and some other lady, about 10 years younger than you, is sitting at your vanity putting on your makeup.

And you were like, excuse me? And she looked at you and said, you know what, I'm going to take over for a while? Because I think I can love you better to him, and I think I can raise your babies better than you can. Let me tell you what would happen if that happened in my house. I'd be calling 8-1-1. and you might be like, you mean 911? No, that's where you call it an emergency.

8-1-1 is when you call where you've got to find out where to dig. You understand what I'm saying? Because Gretchen would kill that lady. He'd cut her head off with a straight iron, just slow, okay, right, right, right, right. Not because she's jealous up, she's jealous for, right? That's my family. The best example that I know of is this, and so buckle up.

Last time I tried to do this, it went bad for me. Listen, if you were a nursing mother, this is the best example I know. You ready? Ready? Let's be care. I'm pro all the things. And your baby is crying for food. Your baby, you're a nursing mother. And you know you are the only one that can meet this baby's needs. If I were to come and be like, oh, I can take care of this, you would be like, no, no, no, no, no, no, you can't. You do not have what my baby needs. I am the only one that has what my baby needs. Therefore, the most loving thing

I can do for my child is be jealous for my child and make sure when my baby cries, my baby gets me. This is what God is saying when God says he is a jealous God, that we cry out and there's nothing in this world that can give us what we need because what we need is him. So the most loving thing he can do is provide us with himself. And yet we're prone to wonder, Lord, I feel it prone to leave the God I love. So what do you do this week, man? this week when you were a friend of the world and an enemy to God. What do you do? Here's what you do, verse six, but he gives more grace. Let me say it one more time so you can amen better there.

But he gives more grace. He don't just give some grace. He doesn't give barely enough grace. He gives more grace. He gives amazing grace and he gives abundant grace and he gives grace to save us and he gives grace to sustain us. And he gives grace to call us to repentance. And he gives us grace to grow. And he gives us more grace than you can imagine. He gives us that kind of grace change that changed everything in our life. That's kind of grace he gives us. I don't know if we got any 90s Christians in here back in the 1900s. There was this guy named Rich Mullins and he wrote a song and in the song it says, so if I stand, let me stand on the promise that you will pull me through. But if I can't, let me fall on the grace that first brought me to you. That's the kind of God we serve.

That's the kind of God we serve. But he gives us more grace. Therefore, it says the it there is Proverbs 334. God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Let me tell you what the motto of the proud is, I got this. Let me tell you the motto of the humble, I ain't got this. You see, and I know some of you're like, Pastor, what are you doing talking about humility? I tell you, I'm demonstrating that God gives grace, amen? A guy in the lobby this weekend gave me a book.

It's not very big. I don't know that what it says about my intellect. And you know what it's called? He gave me a book called Humility. That's like buying your wife a gym membership. I don't know if that's a good idea. No, baby, seriously. I got you this and some spanks.

I think it's going to work out for us all. Okay, so I was reading it because, you know, and on page 65 of this little book, as he's talking about humility, the subtitle is the joy of self-forgetfulness. It's pretty good. He says this, the composer and conductor, Leonard Bernstein, was once asked which musical instrument is most difficult to play. And he answered, second fiddle.

I can get plenty of first violinist, but to find someone who can play second fiddle with enthusiasm, that's a problem. And if we have no second fiddle, we have no harmony. That's what humility is. And think about this. Listen, Jesus came, live, died for the glory of God. Jesus is before all things and sits on the throne and will come back to rule and reign. But for 33 years, he stepped off of his throne, dressed himself as a servant, and came and was obedient to his heavenly father. And you cannot take this too far.

But in regards to what I just read, he essentially played second fiddle. He said, I did not come to be served, but to serve and give my life as a ransom for many. when he showed his disciples the full extent of his love, he got up from the table right before they were going to do communion. He dresses himself as a servant, and he takes the lowest position, and he washes his disciples' feet. He's worthy of worship. He's worthy to be bowed down to.

He's worthy to be sung to and exalted, and he dressed himself as a servant, and he humbled himself, and he made himself as low as he could go. And then he says, I've set for you an example. You'll be blessed as you do also. therefore God opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble. Do you want God to oppose you? You'll never win because he's undefeated.

He's never lost. Do you want God with you or on the other side keeping you from the thing that you want? We'll be proud and think you can do it on your own and he will oppose you. Sometimes we sing that song, Sean, you're going to hate this. Sometimes we sing this song where it says, you have no rival. You know that song? you have no rival, you have no equal. And one time, years ago, J.P. was like,

but I thought God had a rival, like the devil. And I was like, yeah, but it's like the Georgia, Georgia Tech rivalry. Like technically, it's a rivalry, but he wins 100 to nothing every time. I did that for you. So it's like that. He gives grace to the humble. Why? Because the humble go, we need it.

We need your grace. Do you know why the proud don't get grace? they can't receive it because they don't think they need it. Keeps going. Submit yourself, therefore, to God. Resist the devil and he will flee you. You want to be a friend to God instead of a friend to do the world? Well, first and foremost, it comes with your submission, therefore, to God.

Yeah, but what if I don't like what he's going to do? That's what submission is. You realize it's not submission until you don't like it. If you were elderly prayer, you saw that I am submitted to our board of elders. But if they came to me and they were like, here's what we want you to do. We want you to go on a hunting vacation and we want to pay for it. And I'd be like, I submit. No, no, no. It's just convenient. Submission is not submission until you disagree. Submit yourself to the Lord. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. It begins with surrender. It's followed by resisting and the devil can't win because

Christ has already won the victory. And then the promises of all promises. I don't know why this thing is wearing me out this week. I know this verse. I quote this verse all the time. It's one of the greatest promises in the entire Bible. I think this is the singular greatest relational promise I've ever seen. The God of the universe would have the audacity to look to us a bunch of adulterous people that are oftentimes friends with the world. And he would not only offer us more grace, but he would then give us this invitation. Draw near to me. And I promise I will draw in here to you. Are you kidding me?

Are you kidding? Wives, imagine this. Wives, listen to me. Imagine. Imagine if you knew with 100% certainty, if you just leaned into your husband, loved your husband, was just a little bit sweet to your husband, that every single time he would love you,

he would speak words of life into you, he would provide, he would protect, he'd take out the trash, he'd scratch your back without strings attached, he'd listen to every story and do the dishes. Imagine that kind of invitation. you're so stunned, you're like, what are we talking about? This is fiction. Parents.

Imagine looking at your, like, imagine if you're 13-year-old. You already know what's going. Imagine if you're 13-year-old was like, mom and dad, if you will just raise me in the admonition of the Lord, I will love you, I will respect you, I will listen to you, I will obey you, and I will show you public affection. You'd be like, that's, are you, who are you? Business people, imagine if every investment

you made always produced husbands. Imagine. You know what I'm saying? What if every time you're like, okay, imagine? You're like, I can't even imagine. And the God of glory says, if you just draw in, if you just lean in a little bit, if you just come my way a half a step,

you draw near and I promise, I promise I will draw near to you. The image that comes to mind, I don't know if this is helpful for you, but I fly a bunch, right? And so I get this picture of an airline pilot of a big old jumbo, whatever, 747. With all those couple hundred people and thousands of pounds and all of that energy. And there's just one man or one woman sitting up there. And they've got their hands on the controllers.

And all they do is move their wrist like this much, right? They barely move it. And back in the day it was hydraulics and today it's all electronics. and everything takes over, and that jumbo jet with all of that fuel and all those people and all of that luggage and all of that power and all of that poundage and all of that energy, and all of that big old thing moves and goes in a different direction because one tiny little human being did their wrist like that. I think God's saying, it's like that with me. You think you can climb your way up here to heaven? No, there's not a chance, but here's what you can do.

You lean into me, and I will lean into you. And you say, well, how do I do that? The Puritan's called it mortification and vivification. Mortification means to resist the devil. Mortification. Maybe it's like where we get the word mortician, all right? That means there's some stuff. The enemy's trying to kill, steal, and destroy you in your life.

And you better go to war against those things. You either be killing sin or it's going to be killing you. Here's the problem, though. Listen, sin is like an apex predator. We try to treat it like a house pet. like I'm going to flirt with it, I'm going to tame it, I got this under control, you ain't got it under control. I dare you in this season from right now, from now to the time we particularly get to saturated. Pay attention to the things that are killing your relationship with God and go to war against them.

You don't try to tame it, man. I mean, you aggressively try to take those things out. That's how you resist the devil. Those are fighting terms. And then that'll never be enough. Like we live in Florida. if all you do in your yard is spend time pulling weeds, you'll never do anything but pull weeds. The best way to choke out the weeds is to have healthy grass, right?

And so what we have to do is not only be killing the things that are trying to kill us, but we also need to consistently do the things, put ourselves in the environment that stir our affections for the Lord. The Bible would call it, or the Puritans really, would call this vivification. So what are you doing to cultivate your relationship with Jesus? some of those things are individual to you you know walks on the beach time in a deer stand but i don't know the christian that walks in an abiding relationship with the word that doesn't at least been time in god's word time with god's people and time in god's presence at church these things are foundational so listen for this season i wish i was smart enough to plan this out

man, I plan out these sermons about a year in advance. I did not have this verse picked on the week that we are starting our preparation for saturated, but this is what the preparation for saturated is. The reason that we're going to pray in fast is because Jesus has said it is a way that we can draw near to God. It's a way that we can look at our flesh and say, stop it. And we can look at Jesus and say, I need you more. So you do these things, man. find the things that are killing your relationship with him and go to war against it

and then do the things show up to hour of prayer fast with us pray like crazy and the promise is man when you draw near to him he will draw near to you then he says again now james is a a jewish christian right into a jewish audience and so he uses this rabbinical teaching method here called remez he says cleanse your hands you sinners and purify your hearts you double-minded what he's doing is he's kind of quoting psalm 24 Psalm 24 3 and following says this who shall ascend the hill of the Lord and who shall stand in his holy place

in other words how do we draw near to God how do we get close to him can anybody ascend the hill of the Lord and here's how you get in he who has clean hands in a pure heart and does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully let me just cut through it

You know who that is? Not you. Not me either. That is none of us. So what are we going to do? Well, the good news is that the message of the gospel is not that we ascend the hill of the Lord. The good news of the gospel is that Jesus descended from on high and became one of us and died in our place that he could take us with him to the hill of the Lord. This is why it goes on in Psalm 24 to say this.

He will receive blessing from the Lord. That's a gift. Your salvation. Blessing from the Lord is a gift that you receive. You will receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of His salvation. That the moment you put your faith in Jesus Christ, you do have a pure heart because he rips out your heart of stone and gives you a new heart. It's his heart. And you do have clean hands, not because you've cleaned up your life, but because God has imputed you with the righteousness of Christ and the blood of Jesus washes away all of your sin.

Then he keeps going. What he's saying is only Jesus can accomplish this. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. And you're like, what? Humble yourself before the Lord, and he will exalt you. This is a picture of repentance.

A big part of what fasting is is to tell your flesh no so that you can tell Jesus, yes. It's that you don't mourn that you have sinned. You mourn that you were a sinner. When Jesus starts out the sermon on the Mount, he said, Blessed are the poor and spirit. What he's talking about here is when you realize that you were spiritually bankrupt, you were perfectly positioned to know Jesus Christ as your Savior. And we don't ever graduate from that.

You see, in Ephesians, Paul says that we were dead in our trespasses, that we were enemies of God, that we were children of wrath. This is Ephesians chapter 2. And then he says, and such were some of you. And you could never forget that. That the grace that we have received, that Jesus took us an enemy of God, a friend of the world,

and he came down that hill, and he cleansed our heart, and he washed our hands, and he called us his very own. You see, this is this kind of a famous, like, preacher-tweetable thing. humility isn't thinking less of yourself, it's thinking of yourself less. That's true, but this is better. Humility is seeing yourself in light of Christ. That's what humility is.

And so you are simultaneously a sinner in need of a Savior and what Romans 8 says is you were more than a conqueror. I thought about this for a long time. What does it mean that you were more than a conqueror? Here's what it means. If you were just a conqueror, that means you're part of the army, and when you conquer, you get access to the spoils. But when you're more than a conquer, that means your dad's the king.

And after you get access to the spoils, you go home with the king in his castle and sit at the king's table, and you have access to the king. That's what it means to be more than a conquer. That's it. And so here's the point, man, draw near to God and he will draw near to you. What a promise, church. You draw near to this world and it will betray you. I promise. There's this beautiful picture of what you.

it looks like to draw near to God. It's probably Jesus' most famous parable. It's definitely one of my favorite. In Luke chapter 15, there are people listening to Jesus teach, and there are people of ill repute that he's hanging out with, and there's religious people, and they're not listening to him, they're listening at him. You know what I'm talking about?

They're trying to find him saying the wrong thing, and they ask these questions, like, why in the world is he hanging out with those people? You know what? That's what Jesus got in trouble for more than anything. else. Why is he hanging out with those people? And so he told three stories. He tells a story about a lost coin, tells a story about a lost sheep, then he tells a story about a lost son. We know it as the prodigal son. And this prodigal son goes to his father and he goes, basically, Dad, I wish you were dead. I want your stuff. I don't want you. And he rejects God. And he is literally a friend of the world and he has hostility towards his dad. He's exactly what James is talking about. And you know what he does? He draws nearer to the world and it betrays him and it lets him down. Because you know what the world does?

You know what the enemy does? The enemy baits you down a road and then laughs at you when you get to the end of it. Every single time. With lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh, and the pride of life. And the Bible says that he squanders everything he has on wild living. And he's homeless and he's helpless. And he's isolated and he's alone. And he finds himself with the worst job for a Jewish boy.

He's feeding pigs. There's nothing worse you could do as a Jewish person. This means that he was constantly defiled. He was out of fellowship. He couldn't go to the synagogue. He couldn't be around one of his brothers or sisters. And he begins to look at the food, the pigs are eating, and he's thinking, I would eat that at this point. And then it dawns on him.

The Bible says, the Bible says a couple things. The Bible says, no one did anything for him. which means that his father would love him enough to let him fall flat on his back so what he would realize is that he needed to look up and come back to the father. And then the Bible says he came to his senses. And he didn't even have a complete understanding of what he was going to do. But he comes up with this scheme in his mind. He goes, you know what?

My father's servants eat better than I'm eating. I think I can go back and try to earn my way back into the estate as like one of the yard guys or something. So he's coming back home. He's coming up with his excuse in his mind. Remember those days? You're like, all right, all right, what's my story? What's my story? What's my story?

What's my story? That's what he's doing. He's rehearsing it on his way back. Father, I have sin against you and against heaven. Maybe I've thrown some Jesus talking there. He'll help me out. And yet the Bible says that his father, his father, sees him from a long way off.

What does that mean? That means every single day since the day his son left, that he's scanning the horizon, just waiting, waiting for the day that his son would come home. And the Bible says that he does not stand up on the porch like the boss that he is and wait for his son to get in his presence so he can say, I told you, it's not what he does. The Bible says that he runs to his son. You know what's happening here in Jesus' story? This kid drew near to the father, and then the father closed the distance the rest of the way. I think the reason Jesus tells the story is because he's, because he's going to be.

in Leviticus, the Bible says that if a son betrays his family like that, then the elders would stone him and outside of the city. People live like in communities together, and there would be elder gates. And so if he gets to the gates before the father gets to him, he would receive the judgment of the law. So I think the dad hikes up his robe and takes off running because he's got to outrun the judgment, the righteous judgment of the elders. Because according to law, that's what this boy deserves. And he gets there before the boy can be judged. And he roused. And he rapsed His arms around him. And the Bible says that he covers his son face with kisses.

That he wraps his arms around him. Why? I think so that nobody can tell where the father ends and the boy begins. So let the rocks start coming. They'll hit the dad, not the son. And he gives him more grace. He gives him more grace. He was a friend of the world and hostile towards his dad.

But this father gave more grace. He wraps his arms around him. And then he says, bring the robe, bring my robe. It is a picture of the imputed righteousness of Christ. And he wraps the robe around him. The Bible does not say that the boy goes to the holiday in express and gets cleaned up before he comes to dad. So we have to assume that he's covered and filth. But when the dad wraps the robe around him, you don't see the filth. You see the cleanliness, the righteousness of the father. That's what happens when we trust God, when we draw near to him.

The dad gets a signet ring. This means he's reclaiming him as his son. He gives him shoes for his feet, servants didn't get shoes, son got shoes, and then he throws a party for him. He throws a party. And then the religious brother. It's like, what's happening in there? And the religious brother, the older brother in the story, doesn't go talk to the dad because religion will keep you talking to other people instead of talking to God. He goes to the servant. He goes, what's going on? And the service is like, oh, this is your brother's home. He was dead. Now he's alive. So your dad's doing a party. So the son, this older son goes to the dad. He says, you're going to throw a party? this son of yours has shamed you.

He doesn't say this brother of mine. He says, this son of yours has shamed you. And then the older brother gives this religious resume. You know why? He's like, I've earned it. Who can ascend the hill? I can't. He says, I've obeyed every one of your laws here.

Yeah, right. He said, you can do anything for me. and you know what the father does to that religious son who is just as lost as a rebellious son? He does the same thing he did for his kid, the younger one. The Bible says he entreats him. He falls down on his face. He begs him. Think about this.

The estate owner in first century Jerusalem in an honor culture is out there totally humiliating himself in front of all of his staff. And he's on his face and the word entreat means to beg. Some of my reformed brothers and sisters, mostly brothers, not the funnest crew to ever run with, but that's my people. Like, you mean to tell me that God would beg someone to be the almighty sovereign king of the universe who the angels sit around and sing, holy, holy, holy, my Bible says that the father in this story who represents God begged his son, won't you please come in the party, won't you please come in the party, won't you please come in the party, want you please come in the party? You know what another version of that invitation is?

If you'll just draw near to me. If you will just draw near to me, even though you have been a friend to this world, even though based on your activity, there has been hostility between you and I. If you will just surrender to me, if you will just resist the devil, he will get out of here. If you will just draw near to me, here's what I promise you, I will draw near to you. He says everything that I have has always been yours. Church. In this season, may we, by the power of the Holy Spirit, deposited in us.

And by the way, if you don't have the Spirit of God because you have it, surrendered your life to Jesus, would you do it now? I mean, would you do it right now? Would you realize that he has stepped out of heaven? He has come on a rescue mission for you so that you can know him, so that he could rescue you from this world and rescue you from yourself so that you might have him and you you could be in the presence of the almighty sovereign creator of the universe who is lord and king and he would call you son or daughter draw near to him and he will draw near to you let's pray

if there's anybody here and you are ready to surrender your life to the lordship of christ would you just lift your hand as a symbol saying, Father, here I am, I want you to save me. And I promise you, if you believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead, and you confess right now that Jesus is your Lord, the Bible promises you will be saved. Our good and gracious Heavenly Father, God, we love you so much. We, a treacherous, adulterous people who are prone to wonder, Lord, we feel it prone to leave you the God we love. So God, that's why I thank you so much that when Jesus died on the cross for anyone who believes you take our heart and you seal it forever so that we can't even run from you because you could chase us down every single time God for the for the men the women

the students right now and as we evaluate our lifestyle as compared to what we believe and the audio is not matching the video by your grace Lord would you lead us to repentance may we say no to this world, may we say yes to you, may we surrender to you, may we resist the devil, he will flee, and may we just lean into you knowing it's the greatest relational promise and invitation in all of eternity, and you will draw near to us. Because God, that's what we need. Like a baby crying for their mom, our hearts and souls cry out for you because you are what we need. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Would you please stand?

We're going to respond. We're going to respond. We're going to sing. We're going to sing like we have been invited to a party that we don't deserve, but that God is lavishing his love upon us. And one of the ways that we can love him back is we can just worship him. And we're going to pray. One of the primary ways to draw near to God is to pray.

One of the primary ways to draw near to God is to humble yourself. Men, you know, as some of you hadn't been at this altar, pride. He's got something for you down on one of these carpets. You just can't get in your seat because in your seat you're too worried about what everybody thinks about you. And you're like, how do you know? And we're going to bring tithes and offerings, first fruit offerings. Why? Because he's first.

Not just as an act of duty, not just an act of begrudging obedience. No, no, no, no, no. Because he's first. And he deserves it. And he's worthy of it. and he humbled himself and he gave us his first and best. And so we gladly bring to him our first and best to say no to this world and say yes to him. So let's sing, let's bring, let's pray.

Let's go.