Latest / Living Waters of Grace / Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland Sunday Services / James 4:7-17 - Fellowship with God and One Another

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James 4:7-17 - Fellowship with God and One Another · Living Waters of Grace / Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland Sunday Services

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  Good morning, Calvary Chapel, good morning.
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  What a blessed morning it is. Amen.
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  Amen. It's always good to be in the
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  House of the Lord. When I ask you, please turn in
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  your Bibles to James chapter 4. We're going to be in, We're
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  going to be in. You start at verse 7.
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  But before we do that, I have just a couple things to say
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  before we say something. Hey, man.
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  Well, first of all, I just want to welcome everyone that's here
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  today as our sister always gives the most gracious welcome to
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  everybody. I just want to echo that.
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  Thank you all for coming. Those of you who are new here,
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  welcome to Calvary Chapel and thank you so much for choosing
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  the worship with us this morning.
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  And those who are already, we thank God for you guys coming to
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  every, every Tuesday, I mean every Wednesday and every Sunday
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  that you're with us. We are grateful that you have
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  chosen to worship with us. And of course, I never want to
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  neglect those who are listening behind prison walls.
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  It's so great that you choose to worship with us and we pray that
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  the ministry is a blessing to you.
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  I just want to mention that, you know, there's times when people
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  may ask, you know, on a Sunday sometimes, how do I, how do I
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  give, you know, how do I give the cowboy child?
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  How do I give to this ministry? How do we give to the radio
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  station? And well, we want to answer that
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  this morning. First of all, I want to thank
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  you for your support. Those of you who give, we thank
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  you for your support. We could not do any of the
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  things that we're able to do without your precious gift,
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  financial gifts and the blessings that you have given,
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  particularly in 2025. But if those of you who are
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  questioned, like just some new people here and they want to
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  know, well, how do we give now? We don't take an offering, so
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  you never see people walking through the sanctuary with any
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  kind of receptacles or anything asking for an offering.
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  We don't take an offering as a body of Christ.
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  We give an offering and the church receives your offering,
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  but we don't take an offering. So how do you give then?
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  Well, first of all, back in our Fourier, in the front there is a
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  black box. As soon as you come in the door,
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  if you walk in those doors and you look to the left, there's a
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  black box there that has a opening and you can give your
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  gift there either when you first come in or on your way out, feel
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  free to give a gift. And also in the back there,
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  there is a black receptacle looks almost just like that one
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  and it has an opening as well. And you are able to drop your
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  offering in there OK as well. Now there's some of you who say,
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  well, you know what, I like to give online or I like to give by
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  push pay. If you would download the
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  Calvary Chapel app, you can give by push pay on that app.
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  OK with and actually that's how I give.
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  I like to give by push pay. It's really easy.
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  I can be anywhere. So oh, you know what?
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  I didn't get a chance to give this morning.
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  Bam, go on my app and it's done and it's done.
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  So it's very easy. You can give online at the
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  Calvary Chapel website if you choose to do that.
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  Some of you may say, you know what, I'm more old fashioned.
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  I like to give by mail. I want to mail mine in and we
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  do. We get a lot of people who
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  decided to mail their offerings in, and you can do that by
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  mailing it to Calvary Chapel Post Office, Box 716,
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  Greensburg, PA 156 01. So all these are the various
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  places where the various ways that you can give to this
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  ministry. But we want to thank you so much
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  because God has been faithful to this house and you're giving and
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  you have been a blessing to this house in terms of your faithful
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  and very generous giving. And we want to thank you for
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  that. So having said that, why don't
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  we get into the word of God? What do you think?
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  Amen. Let's get into the Word of God.
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  Let's pray. Father, we do thank you, first
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  of all, that you've given us your Son, Jesus Christ.
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  We thank you for the salvation that we have through him.
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  We thank you, Father, for our redemption, our sanctification,
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  and our justification that we have through the shed blood of
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  Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.
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  And we thank you for this day that you have given us, that we
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  will be be glad and rejoice in. We thank you Father, for these
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  wonderful dear brothers and sisters who make up the body of
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  Calvary Chapel. We thank you for their heart to
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  serve you through this ministry. We thank you for those who have
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  given and those who desire to give.
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  We ask God for a blessing upon them.
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  And Father, we thank you for your word, which you give to us,
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  that we may know you as we seek you.
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  So we ask today, Father, as we sit under your word, we thank
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  you that we've been able to worship with you through Psalm,
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  we've been able to worship through prayer, and even through
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  our giving, we worship you. And now we're going to worship
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  you, Father, by sitting under your word and submitting to your
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  word. And we pray, Father, that you
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  would open your mouth this morning and that You would speak
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  to us. We need you to speak to us.
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  It doesn't matter what I have to say.
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  No one's here to see me or hear me.
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  But Father, we do want to come and hear you.
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  We want to hear Your heart concerning these passages.
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  And Father, we pray that you would cause Your word to
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  transform us, to change us, to make us more like your Son,
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  Jesus Christ. That's our desire every time we
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  come together. It calls us, O God, to grow in
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  the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and
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  every day Lord, every day. So we ask these things in the
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  name of our Savior, in our Lord, in Jesus name we pray.
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  Let everybody say Amen, Amen. So let's get into the word of
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  God. Amen.
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  So we are in James chapter 4 and although I want to the, the,
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  the, the main focus of our text today is going to be starting at
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  verse 7. But before we do that, I do want
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  to go back to chapter to verse 4.
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  And it says this, It says the doctors and the doctor says, do
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  you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with
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  God, and whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world
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  makes himself an enemy of God? Or do you not think that the
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  Scripture says in vain? The Spirit who dwells in US
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  yearns jealously. And I'm going to stop right
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  there for a second. So James was speaking, as we've
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  mentioned before, James is speaking to a scattered people.
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  This is not just one particular church that he's speaking to.
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  He's speaking to believers, but they're scattered due to the
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  persecution. They were scattered.
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  They've left Jerusalem and they're in a lot of different
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  places. So being in different places,
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  one of the things that can happen with church, just like it
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  can happen with us, right? Depending on where, where it is
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  that we're scattered to, there's that potential of being
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  persecuted by the non believers in those areas or in, in, in
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  this case, it was not only just the non believers or the, the
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  Gentiles, but also the non believing Jews.
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  We're also persecuting them. And, and, and James was dealing
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  with an issue of the people trying to survive in those
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  areas. And a lot of times they would
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  compromise in order to try to get along, in order to try not
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  to stand out. And, you know, we, we, we know
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  what that's like. You know, as, you know, growing
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  up, sometimes we just don't want to stand out.
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  And it's almost easier or we feel that it's easier.
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  We convince ourselves that it's easier to just compromise, to
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  just, you know, fit in, so to speak, be like everybody else.
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  But then you think to yourself, well, what was I thinking?
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  After a while, you know, of different things that you do to
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  compromise. And you think, what was I
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  thinking? What was wrong with me?
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  How could I have made a decision to act like that?
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  Well, just for just for a second there, I just want you to know
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  what it looks like sometimes of what was I thinking, OK.
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  And this is a time in my life when I capitulated to what was
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  going on around me. I wanted to look like them and I
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  wanted to act like them. So I have this evidence that I'm
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  going to share with you. What was I thinking?
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  I don't know what's worse, the hair or the shirt.
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  What was I thinking flowery shirt and I don't even know if
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  you can see the medallion in there with that.
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  But anyway, that was in one of my what were what was I thinking
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  days. So keep that in mind because as
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  we go further, we're going to get back to what was I thinking,
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  OK. But throughout the Bible,
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  throughout the Bible, it was mentioned by God.
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  God made it very clear that he wanted the church.
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  He wanted Israel to be separate from the other nations.
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  He warned them several times. When you go into these different
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  places, don't do what they do. Don't act like they act.
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  Don't take on their sins. Don't worship their gods.
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  He did it throughout the entire Old Testament.
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  Moses warned them even before they went into Canaan.
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  Now when you go in, make sure you don't act the way they act.
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  Don't take on their customs. Don't do the things that they
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  do. Keep yourself separate and even
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  into the New Testament, you know, Jesus made it clear, you
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  know, you can't serve 2 masters, OK, you either going to love one
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  or hate the other, or you're going to be loyal to 1 and
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  despise the other. But you can't serve 2 masters.
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  You can't serve both God and Mammon.
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  And I love what some of the New Testament scripture say about
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  it. I'm just going to look at a
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  couple. I'm going to start with John.
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  Let's start with John and and John and, and, and in the book
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  of John, Jesus says this in his prayer.
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  John 17 looking at verse 14, he says this.
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  He says I have given them your word and the world has hated
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  them because they are not of the world.
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  And Jesus preached that constantly that you are not of
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  the world. The world's going to hate you.
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  People are not going to receive you.
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  They didn't receive me, so they're not going to receive
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  you. So you're not of the world, just
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  as I am not of the world. 15 says I do not pray that you
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  should be, that you should take them out of the world.
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  We need to be here in the world. We are the light and we are the
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  salt, so we need to be here in the world.
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  The Israelites were supposed to be the people of God who would
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  demonstrate the righteousness of God in the earth around all
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  those Pagan nations. They were to be the light.
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  And we as a church today, we are supposed to be the light.
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  It's a very significant thing for you to be in Christ Jesus.
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  It's not just to wake up every morning and say I'm saved.
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  No, our lives should demonstrate the righteousness and the
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  goodness and the love of Jesus Christ and we will stand out.
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  We will be different. Some people will love that.
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  Some people may love it from afar.
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  Other people are going to hate that as we're going to talk
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  about that in a second. But Jesus makes it, makes it
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  very clear that they, he says they are not of the world, just
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  as I am not of the world. Now one more, I'm going to a
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  couple more. I'm going to take a look at,
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  let's look at Romans chapter 12. It's, it's, it's a, it's a
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  common one. I'm sure you guys could probably
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  recite it without even going to it.
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  And he just simply says this. I'm going to read 1 and 2 verses
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  1 and 2. I beseech you therefore,
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  brother, and by the mercies of God, that you present your
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  bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your
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  reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this
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  world. Conform the word con.
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  Inform the word con means form with it means to be with.
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  Do not be with this world in terms of assimilating their
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  ideas, assimilating their culture.
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  Don't be with them in form. We should not look like them.
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  But he says be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
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  Transform means to be to go beyond, to cross.
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  We should cross their culture, not be informed to their
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  culture, but we should cross their culture and go beyond.
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  The Bible says that we should seek those things which are
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  above and not the things that are upon the earth.
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  We should place, we should set our minds on things that are
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  above. We're the Kingdom of God and we
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  are supposed to represent the Kingdom of God.
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  And that's exactly what James is saying here.
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  So you're going into these communities and instead of being
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  separate, he says, as it tells us back here, back in James
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  chapter 4, he says instead you're being adulterous, you're
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  betraying God and you're, and you're, and you're worshipping
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  their their gods and you're assimilating to their to their
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  cultures and, and doing the things that they do.
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  Instead of being separate, he said, you're, you're being an
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  adulterers and adulteresses. Do you not know that friendship
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  with the world is enmity with God?
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  Friendship. That means having the same
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  values, having those things in common and living like them have
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  an agreement with them. When the Bible clearly tells us
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  what does, what agreement does light have with dark?
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  But instead these, these, you know, these scattered believers,
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  because they were trying to get along, they became adulterers.
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  They betrayed, they betrayed the Lord Jesus.
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  Now, now, now he now, if we were to portray our loved one, just
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  think about that for a second. We would betray our loved one
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  and give our affection to someone else.
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  That would be jealousy on my part.
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  If I if, if I, if my wife was and I and I never believed she
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  would, but if my wife was to, if I sensed that there was
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  affection that was being given to somebody else, her heart was
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  being given to someone else, that would create jealousy in
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  me. I would be jealous.
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  God was jealous and he says that down here in verse in verse 5,
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  he says the spirit who dwells in US yearns jealously.
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  That means it longs for their affection.
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  He longs for their heart. But that heart was given to
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  another God. That heart was given to another
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  culture, and they started acting like other people.
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  And God is saying the spirit in you is jealous.
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  I want your affection because my affection is better for you.
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  I give life the things of the world, earthly, sensual,
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  demonic, those things bring death.
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  So he was jealous for them. But even what it says back here
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  and when he says, do you not know?
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  Their friendship with the world is enmity against God.
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  That means it's hostile against God, hostile, very hostile
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  against God. Whoever therefore wants to be a
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  friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God, makes
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  himself an enemy of God. Who wants to be an enemy of God?
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  But when we compromise with the world, is what James is saying
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  to these people. When you compromise with the
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  world, you're making yourself an enemy of God.
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  Why? Because the world hates God.
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  The world hates God very quickly.
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  Can we go back to Psalm 2 very quickly?
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  This epitomizes exactly what James is saying, that in terms
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  of the world versus the church, Psalm chapter 2.
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  Again, most of you can probably recite this song by heart, but
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  just so we have a good understanding, let's just read
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  it. Verse one says this Why do the
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  heathens rage? Or why does a nation's rage and
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  the people plot a vain thing? The kings of the earth set
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  themselves, and the rulers take counsel together.
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  Look who they're taking counsel against.
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  Against the Lord, against the Lord and against his anointed. 1
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  The Messiah, verse 3 This is the attitude of the world.
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  This is the attitude of the world, and it's the attitude of
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  the flesh, which is why we have to keep our flesh in check.
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  Let us break their bonds in pieces and castaway their cords
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  from us. We've got, we don't want you to
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  rule over us, so we're casting your bonds away from us.
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  That's why they get rid of Bibles.
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  They don't want us to have Bibles in public places and they
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  don't want us to have Bibles in school where and work and all
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  those things because they want to cast those things out.
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  They want to get rid of those things, though.
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  Listen, the world hates God and the world is saying to us, God,
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  you are not going to rule over me.
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  And as a church we need to understand that, but we need to
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  stand on the word of God because He will rule over us.
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  He is our authority. He is our ultimate authority,
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  even over the authority of man. So and we see that.
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  In our society, we see that in our in the culture that they're
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  refusing to let God rule over them.
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  They say, well, how? Well for one thing, when someone
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  says we're, you know, I, we're, you know, we're teaching the
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  children right from wrong when parents say it, or even when or
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  even when the school say it, we're teaching your children
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  right from wrong. We better make sure that we
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  understand what right and wrong they're talking about because
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  there's right and wrong concerning the culture.
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  What they say is right and wrong, and then there's a right
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  and wrong, which is of this word.
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  So you as a parent, you better be.
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  We have to be as a community here, even with our kids that we
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  see here. And I'm so glad that we see
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  young kids sitting in the sanctuary hearing the Word of
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  God. We as a community teach our
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  children right from wrong as it relates to the Word of God.
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  Let me give you an example of where I saw that.
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  That really, really caused me to see that there's a cause for
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  concern. When I was working, I was at a
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  meeting and my then supervisor and about two or three other
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  people were having a conversation.
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  I was earshot of the conversation.
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  They weren't talking to me, but they were having this
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  conversation and I heard the manager say this the other
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  night. I was so proud of my son.
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  He came home from school and his grandfather was there.
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  He came home from school and he said, mom, our teacher, who was
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  a man, brought his husband to school.
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  Wow. The father said, what
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  grandfather? The grandfather says what?
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  That's not right. And then the little boy said,
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  Pop, anybody who loves anybody is right.
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  And the mother beamed and she was so happy and, and, and and
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  so, you know, blessed by the fact that her son could stand up
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  and say that. And then she says to the father,
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  I don't want discrimination of any kind in this house.
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  So we know. We know what is right and wrong
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  concerning the way that she looks at things.
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  When she said that, I turned to her who wasn't in the
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  conversation but was earshot. I said, I agree with dad, I
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  agree with granddad. And from that time on, there was
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  a target on my back. But I did, I agree with dad,
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  granddad, we have to make sure that our kids are getting right
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  and wrong from the right source because the culture has totally
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  confused what they think is right and wrong.
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  And, and, and, and I know I believe we talked about this a
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  little bit, but I just want to go through this just a little
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  bit. When you talked about what's
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  right and wrong, how does their values where they look at things
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  as being right and wrong and their hatred of God and their
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  refusal to be under the authority of the word of God?
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  Well, first of all, how about a traditional family, Their idea
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  of tradition, a traditional family is it could be a man and
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  a man, a woman and a woman. I mean, totally want to tear up
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  the traditional family, the biblical traditional family.
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  We have to be able to stand and say, no, that's not right.
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  Traditional family is a man and a woman.
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  It cannot be to women. It cannot be to to men.
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  Why can't it be? Because the creator who created
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  family says it was a man and a woman.
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  That's why when we look at when we look at marriage, they think
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  anybody can get married. No, it is not right for two
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  women to get married. You can't produce.
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  It's not right for two men to get married.
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  It is between a man and a woman. But let's look at something
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  else. Let's look at genderism where
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  they think that it's OK that a, a kid 810 years old comes home
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  and say mommy, you know, a son, a boy comes home and say Mommy,
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  I want to be, I want to be a girl.
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  Or a 10 year old girl comes home and say, Mommy, I want to be a
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  guy. God made a mistake.
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  I should have been a no, sorry. What you get at birth.
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  That's what God intended you to be.
• 25:28
  That's what God intended you to be.
• 25:30
  I'm not calling. We should not be calling some
• 25:33
  man Sally. If his name is Stu, it's Stu.
• 25:37
  It ain't going to be Sally. We can't be calling some woman
• 25:43
  Donald because her name is Diane.
• 25:48
  But that's what the culture will force us to try to do.
• 25:52
  And if we participate in that, then we're not setting ourselves
• 25:56
  separate from the church, from the from the world.
• 25:59
  We look just like and sound just like the world.
• 26:08
  It's amazing that somebody would say that God made a mistake.
• 26:11
  He put the wrong person in the wrong body.
• 26:13
  No, God did not make a mistake. So when we look at all these
• 26:23
  things and we can go on and on. I mean, I mean, the culture has
• 26:26
  just been, you know, the fact that, you know, they want to
• 26:29
  call marriage. Well, they, they well, it's it's
• 26:31
  legally marriage. If somebody lives together for
• 26:33
  seven years, no, God still say that's fornication.
• 26:38
  God says it's fornication. When you get married, then you
• 26:42
  become a married couple. When you have vows before him,
• 26:46
  then you become a married couple.
• 26:49
  It's not just because you live together.
• 26:52
  We don't Playhouse in the church.
• 26:57
  We just don't know. The world may say that world may
• 26:59
  be OK with that. We can't be.
• 27:01
  And James is saying to this church here and to this body of
• 27:04
  believers, we have to stop committing adultery against God
• 27:09
  and we have to stop becoming this friendship with the world.
• 27:14
  It doesn't mean we don't associate with the world, but to
• 27:17
  be a friend of the world means that we are going to compromise
• 27:21
  and bend just so we can get along with the world.
• 27:25
  And we can't do that. We can't do that.
• 27:31
  So it goes on here. And like I said, he says, what
• 27:34
  do you, you know, do you think the Scripture says in vain that
• 27:39
  the Spirit who dwells in US yearns jealousy?
• 27:43
  In other words, the Holy Spirit, when we, when he sees those
• 27:46
  idols like that in the life of the church and the life of a
• 27:50
  Christian, the Spirit, the Holy Spirit that's in US, he yearns
• 27:55
  jealously. He longs jealously, but verse 6
• 28:00
  is the good news. Verse 6 is the good news, but he
• 28:06
  gives more grace. He gives more grace, bless the
• 28:15
  Lord. So maybe I've gone through these
• 28:18
  things in my life at one time, and I did.
• 28:22
  There was a time when all those things were OK.
• 28:28
  Then when the Holy Spirit comes and moves in, all of a sudden
• 28:32
  now your life changes. We're transformed by the Holy
• 28:38
  Spirit. And it doesn't mean that we no
• 28:40
  longer sin. It doesn't mean that we no
• 28:43
  longer slip. But what it means is that our
• 28:45
  hearts now yearn for the things of God.
• 28:50
  They yearn for the things of God.
• 28:55
  So the good thing is that when we humble ourselves and say,
• 29:00
  God, I am wrong, I sinned, I'm in sin and I want to repent, I
• 29:13
  want to ask for forgiveness. I want to give my heart back to
• 29:18
  you. When he says, but he gives more
• 29:24
  grace, that means that grace is there for us.
• 29:28
  That grace is there for us. And that's such a great, a great
• 29:32
  thing. Because I'm sure that there's
• 29:33
  people, it may be people who are listening, maybe somebody that's
• 29:35
  even here who may be thinking, the things I did are so bad.
• 29:41
  There's no way God is going to forgive me.
• 29:44
  There's no way he's going to be OK with me because the things I
• 29:48
  did are so bad. No, God gives more grace and
• 29:59
  even where he says here God resists the proud, the proud of
• 30:03
  those who want to continue in that way and want to justify
• 30:07
  being in that way and want to make it sound OK being in that
• 30:10
  way and try to spin it. So being in that way is OK
• 30:14
  because I want to do things my way.
• 30:17
  I don't want nobody to tell me what to do.
• 30:21
  That's the proud and God resists the proud.
• 30:24
  And that word resists is scary because it means that God steps
• 30:27
  in and stands against the proud. He steps in and he is saying to
• 30:33
  the proud. I'm opposing the proud.
• 30:38
  I don't want to be in a position or in a place to be opposed by
• 30:42
  God. But he says what?
• 30:45
  But he gives grace to the humble, to those who ask for
• 30:49
  forgiveness, to those who humble themselves and come before him
• 30:53
  and repent. And I've been the recipient of
• 30:57
  that grace more times than I can count.
• 31:05
  And I'm sure most of you have too.
• 31:08
  And thank God He is a God of grace.
• 31:11
  Because had he judged me according to my life, had he
• 31:15
  judged me according to my works, had he judged me according to my
• 31:19
  sins, I wouldn't be here. He would have destroyed me,
• 31:24
  taking me out just like he did Ananias and Sapphira.
• 31:28
  Just like he did with what ABBA who and his brother.
• 31:39
  Judgment came quick and it was swift and it was harsh.
• 31:45
  But if we're, if we're honest, every one of us here have done
• 31:48
  something that would have been justifiable for God to judge us
• 31:55
  in that way. Every one of us, but because of
• 31:58
  Jesus Christ, because of the shed blood of our Savior Jesus
• 32:03
  Christ, we're not judged according to our sins.
• 32:10
  Blessings is the man whose transgressions are forgiven,
• 32:15
  whose sins are covered. That's why we love him.
• 32:22
  That's why we love Jesus Christ. And then verse 7, he says,
• 32:28
  therefore, so you look at all those things that happened
• 32:31
  prior, the fact that we had these wars and you know, in
• 32:35
  verse one, we had these wars and these fights in the church and
• 32:39
  recognizing that those things came from the fact that we in
• 32:42
  our own hearts are warring against each other.
• 32:44
  And the fact that we were adultery, We, we, we betrayed
• 32:47
  God and we weren't faithful to God.
• 32:50
  And we and, and, and the fact that this, you know, these,
• 32:52
  these people were, were going after other gods and
• 32:55
  assimilating with the culture and being friends with the world
• 32:59
  and enemies against God in spite of all those things come to
• 33:06
  verse 7. And he says, therefore submit to
• 33:12
  God because his grace, he gives grace to the humble.
• 33:19
  So therefore submit to God, resist the devil and he will
• 33:23
  flee from you. Submit to God.
• 33:27
  Unfortunately, sometimes because of the the desire for certain
• 33:33
  people to want to have the pleasure and the desires of this
• 33:38
  world, instead of submitting to God, we submit to the
• 33:42
  temptations of the evil 1 and resist God.
• 33:49
  When the Holy Spirit is pulling us and saying don't do that, we
• 33:52
  resist that and submit the devil.
• 33:54
  But God is saying submit. James is saying here, submit to
• 33:59
  God. This is what humility looks
• 34:03
  like. Submit to God.
• 34:04
  And what we're going to talk about from this point on to
• 34:07
  about the next three, 3 verses or so, it's going to be our
• 34:11
  relationship with the Father, our relationship with God.
• 34:15
  And the first thing we need to do is to submit to him.
• 34:18
  Submit to Him whenever we have those decisions to make.
• 34:22
  Am I going to do it the way the culture says it, or am I going
• 34:25
  to do it the way God do it? Submit to Him.
• 34:28
  Submit to God and resist the devil.
• 34:32
  In submitting to God, we do resist the devil.
• 34:35
  Thank God if we resist, if we submit to God, we are resisting
• 34:41
  the devil. All we have to do is just look
• 34:42
  at the example of Jesus Christ when he was in the wilderness
• 34:46
  and when they were and when they came to, when the enemy came to
• 34:50
  tempt him. Four times he tried to get Jesus
• 34:55
  to submit to him. The devil, He wanted you to
• 34:59
  submit to him. But Jesus was full of the Holy
• 35:02
  Spirit, full of the Holy Spirit. Fasting 40 days and 40 nights.
• 35:08
  Body was weak, but he refused on any point to give to Satan.
• 35:18
  He refused. Just look at that for a second.
• 35:21
  Go back. It's always good to read those
• 35:23
  things again. Go back to Matthew 4 and very
• 35:29
  quickly when we look at what Jesus went through and how he
• 35:34
  handled it, how he submitted to God and resisted the devil.
• 35:39
  Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be
• 35:42
  tempted by the devil. And when he had fasted 40 days
• 35:47
  and 40 nights afterward, he was hungry.
• 35:50
  Now when the attempter came to him, he said, if you are the Son
• 35:55
  of God, command these stones to become bread.
• 35:59
  But Jesus meaning he answered and said, It is written
• 36:03
  submitting to God, man shall not live by bread alone, but by
• 36:07
  every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.
• 36:11
  Then in verse 5, the devil then took him up into the holy city
• 36:14
  and set him on a pinnacle of the temple, and said to him, If you
• 36:18
  are the Son of God, throw yourself down for what is
• 36:21
  written. He shall give his angels charge
• 36:24
  over you, and in their hands they shall bear you up, lest you
• 36:29
  dash your foot against a stone. Now we know that Satan knows the
• 36:33
  word of God as well, but it doesn't mean he always quote it
• 36:35
  right? Doesn't mean he always quote it
• 36:38
  right. He will change something in that
• 36:42
  in that verse so that it disobeys God.
• 36:49
  So in this one, he changed a couple things so that it
• 36:51
  disobeyed God. But then Jesus said this to him.
• 36:55
  It is written, you shall not tempt the Lord your God.
• 36:57
  And again, the devil took him up on to an exceedingly high
• 37:01
  mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their
• 37:05
  glory. And he said to him, all these I
• 37:07
  will give to you if you fall down and worship me.
• 37:11
  And that is exactly what the world wants, is for us to put
• 37:18
  ourselves in a position that it looks like we're worshipping the
• 37:22
  world or worshipping Satan. It's exactly what they want,
• 37:27
  Anything. Look, Satan doesn't mind us
• 37:29
  coming to church. He doesn't mind us calling
• 37:30
  ourself a Christian. He just doesn't want us to obey
• 37:34
  God. He just doesn't want us to obey
• 37:38
  God. He doesn't want us to live like
• 37:40
  a Christian. He doesn't want us to walk in
• 37:43
  the ways of Jesus Christ. Call yourself whatever you want,
• 37:46
  Satan said himself. I mean, you know, over in James,
• 37:48
  he said himself, demons believe and they tremble.
• 37:52
  He don't mind you believe in, but he don't want you to obey.
• 37:56
  He don't want you to obey. He don't care if you hear the
• 37:59
  word. He just don't want you to be a
• 38:00
  doer of the Word. That's where we make the, that's
• 38:05
  what we can have the difference. So Jesus said to him, it is
• 38:09
  written, You shall not tempt the Lord your God.
• 38:10
  Again. The devil took him up on
• 38:12
  exceedingly high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of
• 38:15
  the world and their glory. And he said to him, All these
• 38:18
  things I will give to you if you fall down and worship me.
• 38:21
  And Jesus said to him, Away with you, Satan, for it is written,
• 38:25
  you shall worship the Lord your God in him, and him only shall
• 38:30
  you serve. That is the example of someone
• 38:34
  or how Jesus submitted himself to God, submitted himself to the
• 38:39
  word of God at every turn, and resisted the devil.
• 38:43
  So how do we submit? First of all, we need to draw
• 38:45
  near to God. Look at what it says in verse 8.
• 38:48
  Let's draw near to God and he will draw near to you.
• 38:52
  No one has ever tried to draw near to God, and God draw away
• 38:57
  from them. He's never drawn away from
• 39:00
  anybody who draw near to him. Never.
• 39:06
  In fact, Jesus said all that will come to me.
• 39:09
  He said I won't lose any of them out of my hand.
• 39:13
  No one can come to him except the Father send them.
• 39:17
  And all that comes to me and all that the Father send will come
• 39:20
  to me, and I will lose none of them, none of them.
• 39:26
  So you know, when, when, when we come and we draw ourselves to
• 39:30
  God, God never refuses us. In fact, there's nowhere that I
• 39:34
  can remember in the Word of God where someone repented and God
• 39:40
  did not receive their humility. Even Ahab.
• 39:46
  Ahab, who was one of the worst kings when he repented God did
• 39:52
  not do all the, the, the things that he was going to do to Ahab
• 39:57
  deferred it because Ahab ended up going back and doing wrong
• 40:00
  anyway. Even Manasseh, same thing when
• 40:04
  he repented, God hurt him. God hurt him.
• 40:08
  He hears the repented heart. He hears it all the time to
• 40:13
  repent at heart, you know, so he, you know, so we, we draw
• 40:16
  near to God and he will draw near to us.
• 40:19
  Then he says, cleanse your hands, cleanse your hands.
• 40:24
  Cleanse your hands. That means, you know, cease from
• 40:26
  doing sin. You know, there's activity that
• 40:29
  we do that may be sinful. Things that we do with our hands
• 40:33
  is outward things that we do that are sinful.
• 40:35
  And James says, cease from doing those things, cease from doing
• 40:39
  those things, you know, whatever that activity is.
• 40:42
  And we and we, we, you know, we know what our own activity is.
• 40:45
  If there's something that we're doing that's contrary to the
• 40:47
  word of God, James is just sharing it very clearly that
• 40:51
  this is what this church was doing.
• 40:53
  And James said, well, stop doing those things, you know, put away
• 40:57
  your idols, you know, stop, you know, stop participating in
• 41:01
  sexual immorality, You know, you know, you know, stop hating your
• 41:05
  brothers, you know, stop talking against your brothers.
• 41:09
  There are things that that, that, that we do outwardly that
• 41:13
  we need to be cleansed from, that our hands need to be
• 41:15
  cleansed from. I love what it says over in
• 41:18
  Second Corinthians chapter 6. Second Corinthians chapter 6.
• 41:22
  This is another one of those scriptures that makes it very
• 41:26
  clear how we are to be separate from the world and and and the
• 41:32
  Bible makes it very clear. So over in in second Corinthians
• 41:36
  chapter 6, and I'm just going to start right there, verse 14.
• 41:38
  It says do not be equally unequally yoked together with
• 41:42
  unbelievers. For what fellowship has
• 41:44
  righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light
• 41:47
  with darkness? And what accord has Christ with
• 41:50
  Belau? And what part has a believer
• 41:53
  with an unbeliever? And what agreement has a temple
• 41:56
  of God with idols? For you are the temple of the
• 41:59
  living God, as God has said, I will dwell in them and I will
• 42:03
  walk among them. I will be their God and they
• 42:06
  shall be my people. Therefore come out from among
• 42:10
  them and be separate, says the Lord, and do not touch what is
• 42:16
  unclean. And I will receive you.
• 42:19
  I will be a father to you and you shall be my sons and
• 42:23
  daughters says the Almighty God. And then in verse 1 of chapter
• 42:27
  of Chapter 7 in the same book right down from it, it says
• 42:30
  therefore having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse
• 42:35
  ourselves from all filthiness and the flesh of the flesh and
• 42:40
  spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
• 42:44
  And that's what he's asking for, holiness.
• 42:47
  And thank God we don't have to, you know, make we don't have to
• 42:51
  sacrifice bulls and animals in order to draw near to God
• 42:54
  anymore. We don't have to sacrifice and
• 42:56
  get blood from bulls to sprinkle us for our hands to be clean.
• 43:00
  We don't have to go through ceremonial rituals in order to
• 43:03
  be clean. Jesus Christ cleanses us from
• 43:10
  all sin is what the word of God says.
• 43:13
  If we confess our sins so we don't, we have this cleansing
• 43:18
  that comes from Jesus Christ because he can cleanse us to the
• 43:23
  uttermost. I received, I received a, an
• 43:26
  article from a dear sister yesterday that just really
• 43:30
  blessed me. And I, I have to just talk about
• 43:32
  how the article talked about how, when, when, when the Bible
• 43:37
  says that we are to search or, or that God searches the, the,
• 43:42
  the mind and the heart. When God searches that it's not
• 43:46
  just a superficial search of the mind and heart, but is actually
• 43:51
  in the Hebrew it is actually stated that it's the kidneys and
• 43:59
  the heart, the kidney and the heart, which is actually in
• 44:03
  places that are deeper than just the mind or just the heart.
• 44:07
  It's deeper inside of us and, and the whole thinking is this
• 44:11
  without going through a whole statement about it.
• 44:17
  It's about God seeing areas in our lives that we may not even
• 44:22
  realize are there. He cleanses us totally.
• 44:28
  When the scripture says in Hebrews that He saves us to the
• 44:31
  uttermost, that means that everything, when we come before
• 44:35
  Him for cleansing, He cleanse us everything.
• 44:39
  Everything. Even the things that we don't
• 44:42
  mention to Him are being cleansed when we come before Him
• 44:47
  because He sees everything and we are cleansed in Him.
• 44:53
  So we can come before Him not by the the blood of goats and
• 44:58
  bulls, but we can come through with boldness by the broken body
• 45:03
  and blood of Jesus Christ. Thank you Jesus.
• 45:09
  And then he tells us, he says, purify your hearts, you double
• 45:13
  minded The people in this church was was living a life that was
• 45:18
  totally double minded. You know, they were they were
• 45:22
  trying to act Christian, but yet they were compromising with the
• 45:25
  world. And he says, no, cleanse
• 45:27
  yourself from those things. You double minded.
• 45:30
  You know, you know, you're going to either be on one side or the
• 45:33
  other. You can't be lukewarm.
• 45:35
  You won't either be hot or you be cold or I'm going to spew you
• 45:38
  out, you know, cleanse your mind.
• 45:41
  You double minded. You can't both serve God and
• 45:45
  Mammon. You can't serve 2 masters.
• 45:48
  It's what he's saying to them and to us.
• 45:51
  Cleanse ourselves from those things.
• 45:53
  Let's give ourselves, submit ourselves holy to the Lord and
• 46:00
  then over here and then we're going to, we're going to stop
• 46:02
  after this one. Verses 9 and 10 he says lament,
• 46:06
  mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to
• 46:10
  mourning in your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight
• 46:14
  of the Lord, and He will lift you up.
• 46:19
  Unfortunately, when we're living in that ungodly life, running
• 46:29
  after the pleasures of the world, running after our own
• 46:32
  desires, it's almost like we celebrate it.
• 46:34
  We're laughing and joking and, and, and just act like we're
• 46:38
  having such a grand old time when we should actually be
• 46:43
  mourning. We should be weeping, we should
• 46:47
  be lamenting. Even when we think back on those
• 46:52
  things, it should give you one of those mind things where you
• 46:55
  said, what was I thinking? I don't know about you, but I've
• 47:02
  had some of those moments when I'm sitting and I'm meditating
• 47:06
  or pondering some things that that I was, you know, that I'm
• 47:10
  trying to, to do with the Lord. And then these thoughts start
• 47:15
  coming back of things that I've done years ago.
• 47:18
  And I think, how could I have done that?
• 47:21
  What were you thinking? Not just this picture, but I
• 47:28
  mean actual activity and things that I've done.
• 47:31
  And I wondered how could I have done that to a God who loves me
• 47:34
  so much, who died for me? And I, and I started, you know,
• 47:38
  and of course I thought about Clark's description last week
• 47:41
  when he talked about the crucifixion, when that thing
• 47:43
  drives home what he went through and, and, and, and he, he, he
• 47:49
  did it eloquently, You know, there, there was no question
• 47:52
  about it. He drew a picture for us that we
• 47:55
  should all be able to see of of some of the devastation.
• 47:59
  And I say some of the devastation because I've read
• 48:02
  many of them and every one of them, people will say, but this
• 48:07
  is not even close to what he actually went through, what he
• 48:13
  went through. And when I think about that and
• 48:16
  then think about my life and the things that I've done, how could
• 48:24
  I have done that to him? Lord, how could I have done that
• 48:29
  to you? How could I have acted that way?
• 48:33
  How could I have compromised that way?
• 48:38
  And yes, I've lamented, I've wept and I've mourned.
• 48:46
  There's things that I say or have said and, and, and when the
• 48:50
  Lord brings it to my attention, I think, why, What was I
• 48:53
  thinking? Why would I have said that?
• 48:56
  And I can, you know, lament those things.
• 49:02
  So we should, James is saying there should be some remorse
• 49:07
  about our sin, not celebrating it, not laughing it up.
• 49:12
  You know, that laughter needs to be turned to mourning and that
• 49:16
  joy that we that we feel about seeking this, this ungodly
• 49:20
  pleasure and this ungodly joy that should be turned to gloom.
• 49:26
  We should feel a reproach concerning those things.
• 49:30
  And then he says, well, humble yourselves again.
• 49:34
  He tells us about humbling ourselves.
• 49:37
  Humble yourselves in the sight of God, in the sight of the
• 49:39
  Lord, and He will build and lift you up.
• 49:43
  Unfortunately, sometimes we want to be lifted up by the world.
• 49:49
  We want the things of the world to lift us up.
• 49:51
  We want the accomplishments of the world that we do in the
• 49:53
  world to lift us up. We want the things, the material
• 49:56
  things that we can accumulate to lift us up.
• 50:01
  But when we humble ourselves before God, there's nothing that
• 50:03
  lifts us up like God does nothing.
• 50:07
  You can get all those things that you go for, all the selfish
• 50:10
  ambition that you have. I don't care what goals you
• 50:13
  have. You can win championships If
• 50:14
  you're an athlete, you can get all the money that you can try
• 50:17
  to get. If you're in corporate America,
• 50:19
  all the things that you may try to accumulate, it will not fill
• 50:23
  that void. People who have accomplished
• 50:25
  much more than we have, people who have more money than we
• 50:28
  have, they still ask the question, is this all that there
• 50:31
  is? Is there not more than this?
• 50:35
  Because they don't have Jesus Christ?
• 50:39
  There's nothing that can fill our hearts and our lives like
• 50:42
  Jesus Christ. Nothing.
• 50:46
  So he says, humble yourselves, come before him, submit
• 50:51
  ourselves to him, draw near to Him, cleanse our hands, cleanse
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  and, and, and, and, and purify our hearts.
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  That's how we humble ourselves in the sight of the Lord.
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  And he will lift you up. And when he lifts you up, He
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  will pull you up out of that muck and that mire.
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  He'll pull you up out of that pit and he will make you new.
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  Thank you, Jesus. We're going to end there,
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  Father. I'm so grateful to you, Lord,
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  that your grace is greater than my sin.
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  So grateful to you, Father, that your patience with me and with
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  all of us, Lord, has been exceedingly great.
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  I thank you, Lord, for teaching us your heart, giving us your
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  heart through your Scriptures. And I thank you that we even
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  right now, Lord, if we find ourselves walking in a way
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  that's contrary to who you are, that Father, we can humble
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  ourselves and come to you and ask for forgiveness.
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  Thank you, Thank you, Lord, thank you that you sent your Son
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  Jesus Christ to be such an example for us here in the earth
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  round not only an example of walking in righteousness, but an
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  example of how we conduct ourselves even in suffering.
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  Lord, thank you. And Father, sometimes it's hard
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  for us just to deal with the persecution that we receive
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  sometimes day-to-day this these these sanctions that we get from
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  society from not obeying them or or conforming to them.
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  And, and, and they have their ways, Lord, that they show us
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  that they're not pleased with us either conform or be rejected.
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  But Father, I thank you for the example that Jesus Christ gives
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  us. Even in suffering, He continued
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  to submit himself to you.