Jim Class - Part 5

on part five of gym class that we started several weeks ago studying and diving into the book of James and uh I hope you've been enjoying our time together. I know I have really enjoyed anytime you get into the book of James if you've read it once you know that it's going to be a convicting book or if you read the book of James and you're not convicted I would really question about whether you really read a book because he has a way of just getting getting real with this and Jim class is is sort of a play on the on the name James and we've been talking about different ways in which he was bringing about some things that we needed to talk about evaluating in our own personal lives to me I loved and I feel like what he emphasizes in in the entirety of the book is practice over in patience.

Practice of of being patient in life and learning to evaluate yourself because I feel like that is our responsibility. I've I've said in this series and I say this at my my home and with my family all the time. We cannot control other people, but we can control ourselves. I'm not always able to to control the narrative that someone is is is is driving a conversation or acting a certain way, but I do have the ability to control me. Even if I don't feel like it, I still have the ability to control me. I feel like that's what James is talking about. So, tonight, playing off of gym class part five, I'm calling CrossFit. Now, I'm not here to promote a workout program. Some of you maybe you got nervous and like, "Pastor Kevin, if you if you break out some kettle balls and a rope and a big old tractor tire, I'm out of here."

No burpees tonight. Unless you just ate too much before you got here, that's on you. But I do want to use the word crossfit in a spiritual sense because I feel like James is teaching us in chapter 4 that real faith must become fit for the cross. Not just fit for the church, but fit for the cross. Not just fit for Sundays or Wednesday night Bible studies, not just for a good day, but I feel like James is telling us that faith needs to be able to carry weight with it. So, I hope you can let me explain this tonight. Faith has the ability, ladies and gentlemen, to carry both pressure and disappointment. Do you know that it can do that? Here's the truth. Both hardship and success have the ability to test you. Have you realized that? I feel like most of us have lived enough life in this room to know that both success and hardship have a way of testing us how we handle it.

How we handle success. Not every blessing is a blessing from God. You know, we know good things come from him. The word of God tells us that. But sometimes those blessings can actually be detrimental if you don't handle it correctly. And and then there's the hardships that come in life. And if we don't learn how to handle those moments when things don't go according to our plan, it has a way of showing us where we really live. So James begins his letter by taking us right into the training room of disciplehip. We're going to go to James chapter 4. If you have your Bibles and we like to go there tonight, we're going to spend some time specifically in the first six verses. I'm going to read the verse 1-6 for us as we get started. It says this, "Where do wars and fights come from among you?

Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive because you ask a miss that you may spend it on pleasures, adulterers and adulteresses. Do you not know that the friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you think that the scripture says in vain the spirit who dwells in you yearns jealousy? But he gives more grace. Therefore, he says, "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble." Now, I don't know about you, but right off the bat, I feel like he gets and digs a little bit deeper here in chapter 4.

It's already been a good book. It's already been very convicting in the first three chapters. We get into chapter four, and he he starts off by saying and asking a question, where do wars and fights come from among you? Now, as I've said before, James is the brother of Jesus, and he's more than qualified to be able to be a teacher to the church that's here, and he's talking to to to people who who have a relationship with God. And it's apparent that he knows that there are problems that are going on inside the church. But I find it very interesting that he asked the question, where does all these wars and fights come from among you? He immediately addresses a conflict that there are arguments and divisions and tensions and strifees that people are dealing with.

But notice something important. Talking to the church people. Keep that in mind. He's not talking to unbelievers. He's talking to people that have a relationship with God. Sometimes people act shocked that conflict can happen around believers. I just need you to know this. There is no perfect church. Do you know why? Because there's people involved. And people are pitiful. And we're all people. And we all have good days and bad days. Now, hopefully we're trending in the right direction. You know, we we have some hills and valleys we go through, but but James says, basically, let's talk honestly. People who love God still fight flesh. Can I get an amen? >> That was pretty weak. People who love God still fight flesh. Can I get an amen? >> Yes, we do.

We We do. People full of the Holy Ghost still have to crucify pride. People who worship on Sundays still have to deal with selfish desires on Mondays. Still have frustrations. is we have the opportunity to make good and bad decisions. As I said this past Sunday, the devil is looking for you to have a reaction, but you need to make sure and I feel like this this lesson tonight, I was finding so many parallels to my past this past Sunday's message about working on making sure I have a response ready when things don't go the way I want them to come. So then he asked, where does it come from? Where did these fights come from? And then he answers, didn't that come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? James says, "The real war outside of you often begins with the war that's going on inside of you."

I'm going say that again. The real war that's outside of you is often started on the war with the war that's going on inside of you. Have you realized that most of the battle we fight is right up here? Anybody Anybody lived enough life to figure that one out? Yeah. Most of the time it's just in my mind. But what I'm thinking about constantly, what's occupying and what's captivating and grabbed a hold of my attention often times seems to manifest itself outwardly into other situations and circumstances and relationships. So James goes right to the heart of it. He gets right to the point says, "Hey, I think the wars and fights and struggles you got going on, do they not come from within? Something's off inside of you." Now the trouble with that is we can outwardly portray that everything in our life is just fine.

Right? Now most of us are good southern folk here and good southern folk ask a question when they meet someone. How you doing? Do we really want to know how you're doing? No. It's a pleasantry. Your response even if you just had your leg saw off is to say I'm fine. I'm good. I'm good. Pay no attention to my leg on the ground. I'm good. That's what we do. So, we can portray that everything is just fine. But let's be honest, a lot of times it's not. >> It's not where we need it to be. But we don't always like being vulnerable, do we? Or we don't mind being transparent to a point if it lends us an ear to someone to listen to us or if we have learned to be identified by that problem. Now, that's another lesson for another day, but I feel like James is getting right to the heart of the point.

And he goes in a little bit deeper. He says, "Conflict often reveals unsubmitted desires." I feel like is a better better way to talk about it in today's language that's operating inside of us. Pride, control, jealousy, self-centered, envy, personal ambition. James says there's a war happening in your members. And there's a battle between the flesh and surrendering your flesh. It doesn't go down easy. And if the battle's not dealt with internally, eventually it spills out externally because whatever is alive in the heart eventually leaks out in behavior. I'm going to say that again. If you're a notetaker, it's a good note. Because whatever is alive in the heart eventually leaks out in behavior. That's why sometimes we surprise ourselves. Have you ever in your life said, "I can't believe I just said that."

Or, "I can't believe I acted that way. Or maybe you stubbed that pinky toe on the corner of the cabinets in the middle of the night going to get a glass of water and turned it out about 90 degrees and something came out of your mouth that shocked you. That's a good indicator that maybe you're not in tune with your heart as much as you need to be. That's a real telltale sign that maybe there's some stuff going on in there that I'm just not being honest about with myself. Because man, if we have the ability to lie, we we really have the ability to lie to ourselves. And I can deceive me all the time. I can tell myself I've got it when I really don't. I'm good. When really I'm not. That I'm going to be okay when I know the reality is I cannot handle the situation.

I need help. But we lie to ourselves. Jesus said it this way. Matthew 12:34. Brood of vipers, how can you being evil speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. A good man out of good treasure of his heart brings forth good things. An evil man out of evil treasure brings forth evil things. A bitter heart eventually produces bitter words. An insecure heart eventually produces jealousy. And a proud heart eventually produces division. That's why it's important that we pay attention to not just what we say publicly, but more importantly, how we act and behave and speak privately? What do you say when no one else is around? What thoughts come running through your head that you allow to linger that you know you shouldn't?

All those things are indicators of where your heart really is. So the deeper issue deeper than behavior is the issues of the heart. And this is where CrossFit Christianity begins. The cross always deals with the flesh first. I'm going say that again if you're taking notes. The cross always deals with the flesh first. The problem with modern culture is that everybody wants transformation without crucifixion. No one wants to be crucified. We want to be transformed, but we want it done in in a convenient way, you know, and and I' I've used this example many times, like we we we want to be transformed physically, but we don't want to put the effort in. You know, the the weight loss racket money-making schemes have been around forever. You know, I remember my grandparents had what I called a fat shaker.

It was this machine that you hook this belt around your waist and it just jiggled you. I remember being a kid and it's getting on the thing like like somehow they convinced people that you could shake the fat away and then people who were fat are like, "Hey, I'm sign me up. If they'll just get shook and my fat goes away, I sign me up. I can eat a milkshake while I'm doing that." Yeah. And then the on and on progressions of win. And that's just one indicator of how we desire to be different, but when it comes to actually putting in the effort, often times we're reluctant. Those same things also translate over into our spiritual walk with God. If we're going to be transformed into his likeness, there means there has to be less of us and more of him.

which means I have to have less of me involved to allow more of him to be a part of my life. But we don't like the effort. We don't always want to put in the hard work that is there. Again, the cross always deals with flesh first. We want peace without surrender and revival without dying. But the kingdom of God doesn't work that way. Before resurrection comes crucifi crucifixion and before victory, there has to be a surrender. Jesus never invited people to admire the cross. He said, "Come and take up a cross." Think about that. It wasn't meant to be something hung around your neck. It was meant to be a symbol of sacrifice that's involved in the walk with him. Carrying a cross, ladies and gentlemen, means, and this is another note, carrying a cross means something has to die.

And what has to die is me. I've got to die out. Unsubmitted desires create empty people. He continues on and says, "You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and you war." And he's describing this chaos that goes on inside of our lives, inside of our mind, specifically with these uncontrolled desires that we have. We're not establishing healthy boundaries with our self. He's he's exposing the spirit behind hatred and envy and self- ambition and its unsubmitted desires. They always escalate. Did you notice that sin never stays small? It's desire is always for more. Always, always, always more. It never stays in the corner. It's desires to occupy every part of your life. Jealousy and bitterness and lust and pride and resentment, they all grow.

Flesh never says that's enough. Flesh always wants more. James is showing us that people become miserable because they are being ruled by desires they were never meant to worship. I'm going to say that again because it's a really important statement. People become miserable because they are being ruled by desires they were never meant to worship. Our our world that we live in, this North American culture says follow whatever your heart wants to do. Follow every desire, every appetite. Do whatever it is that makes you happy. Live your truth. That cannot be any further away from the truth. We're to live after him and follow him. Scripture teaches us something radically different. Jeremiah 17:9, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.

Who can know it? I mean, if if the prophet is saying you can't know your heart, I'm just following my heart. Well, that just seems like the wrong thing to do according to the word of God. He says it's desperately wicked. There's no way you can know it. Again, we've all lived enough life from the youngest in the room to the oldest that are here right now. We've all lived enough to know that my desires have misled me at times. There's things that I was feeling very strong, but when I go when I finally got what I was feeling, it didn't pan out the way I thought it was going to be. So, be careful how you rule. Let those things rule you. Feelings are real, but feelings are not always trustworthy. the truth. Here's the truth. Flesh is a terrible leader.

Terrible. But yeah, we seem to always want to listen to it. And if you if you follow your flesh long enough, eventually it's going to lead you into a ditch. I promise you. I promise you you you'll find a ditch quicker than you can imagine. Luke 9:23. Then he said to them, "If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me." I love how that says that. You got to deny yourself and then take up your cross win. It's not a one-time event. It's not just an experience that you have and say, "Hey, I've done that before." But he said, "Look, if you're going to come after me, you're going to it's going to it's going to cost you something. You're going to have to deny what you want. Deny your Well, that boy, that ain't mainstream Christianity, is it?

It's not going to get my YouTube channel any hits. But it's the word of God. If you want to come after me, you got to deny you. You got to take up your cross daily. Daily. It's a daily decision. You've heard me say that so many times. So many so many opportunities I've had from this pullpit, both teaching and preaching to tell you it's a it's a sacrifice you and I choose every day. Every day. Because our def our default setting every morning when our eyes wake up, is I'm back on the throne of my life. I'm sitting there again. So, I have to make a willing choice to get off of it. This is why the cross matters because the cross puts flesh in its place. Paul said, "I die daily." To me, that's crossfit Christianity. Every day I bring my flesh back to the cross and I surrender my pride.

Paul said this to the church of Rome. I quote this verse all the time. Romans 12:1, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service." I mean, barebone minimum. Barebone minimum. You got to do this verse number two. And don't be conformed to this world, but be you transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is good and acceptable and the perfect will of God. If you're fitting into the world, there's no way you're falling into the perfect will of God. There's no way. It's an impossibility. It goes contrary to the word of God. Flesh stays alive if it's left unchecked and eventually it creates destruction. But James is telling us, you fight and you war.

You fight and you war. That's what selfishness does. It destroys peace. Homes lose peace. Churches lose peace. Relationships lose peace. And many times the issue underneath all the conflict is not a spiritual warfare from hell. It's simply uncrrucified flesh. We like to blame the devil, don't we? Well, the devil made me do it. The devil didn't make you do that. Your flesh made you do that. You made that choice. There wasn't some demon standing on the side poking you with a stick saying ain't got to do it. It was just you did it. So what James is bringing about, he's bringing about this awareness that we need to have that if we're not purposely trying to draw closer to God, we're automatically drifting away from him. I have to purposely get up every day and determine, God, I am yours.

I belong to you. You purchased me long ago. I am not my own. I am bloodbought. I am redeemed. And I will come into obedience to what it is you have for me and what it is you desire for me above my desires and my feelings and my wants. Sometimes we rebuke devils when we really need to repent of our own pride. James says the problem is deeper than the circumstances. It's a surrender issue often times we struggle with. We don't like surrender. It's defiant. It's there. We see it. There are a few of that are in the room today. How many here have someone in your house live that's under five years old that you're responsible for? Raise your hands up real big. Have you realized that that defiance and lack of surrender is hardwired in them? That little three-year-old, right?

They look at you, they're they're this tall, yet they're so bold and brazen and defiant in what they do. And you're like, "Where did it come from?" It's in us. It's in us. That sinful nature is there. They're precious and cute and we love them when they're asleep. But there's those moments when you're just like, "What are you thinking?" How many times is have I thought to myself, "Does God ever say, Kevin, what are you thinking?" as I'm boldly trying to do it my way, being defiant. It's there. It's something that we never ever ever have to stop fighting. James says the problem is the surrender issue. And because of that, we got to learn how to be stronger in our prayer life because prayer is not about feeding the flesh. Go to verse number two of chapter 4 back in James.

You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive because you ask a miss that you may spend it on your pleasures. James is teaching us something important about prayer. Prayer is not a tool meant to feed selfishness. We're not to treat God like kids treat Santa Claus. I've been good. Here's my list of things that I desire from you. Please meet my demands. God is not a vending machine for fleshly desires. Prayer is about alignment before it's ever about provision. We see that in the garden. Jesus lived it out so that you and I could see that when we go there to pray, it was not my will be done. Lord, I don't want to go through this. I don't I would love for this cup to pass for me.

Nevertheless, not my will, thy will be done. As you've heard me say many times in here, prayer is about will alignment. That is anything to do with your car. It's about my will getting into alignment with his will. And you stay there until you can walk away feeling confident that that is in that is taking place. Even Jesus left and went back. Left and went back. What's he saying? That sometimes you don't get it right on the first go round. Sometimes you leave and you're like, you know what? I still think my attitude's bad. Maybe that's just me. Maybe this lesson is just for me tonight. But I dare say that there's I'm not the only one who's got up from a time of prayer and realized I needed to go back and pray. That my attitude was just as bad when I got up as it was when I nailed down.

Hey, I'm serious. There's been times I've went back and said, "God, forgive me for getting up because obviously we we were not done. I may have wanted to been done, but we're not done because I still have a bad attitude." And you stay there. What are you doing? and you're bringing your flesh into obedience. Real prayer changes us before it changes circumstances. And James says some some people pray with wrong motives. Some people never pray, "Let your kingdom come," but they say, "Let my kingdom be built." That's their attitude. They may not use those words, but that's the motive behind what they're trying to do. They never ask, "Lord, shape me," but they say, "God, please promote me." They never say, "God, be glorified." But they say, "God, make me comfortable.

When did comfort become a prayer? Selfish motives poison prayers? That's uncomfortable, but it's true. So ask yourself sometimes, is the prayer you praying, is it selfish? Is is it selfish ambition? Is it is it is it pride? Or is it a genuine prayer? I'm not saying you can't pray for things that are desires that are there, but make sure that they're in alignment with his will. and purpose and plan for your life. Mature prayer says not mature prayer says not my will but yours be done. And when I go back to this CrossFit model understanding this prayer is not about strengthening flesh. Prayer is about crucifying my flesh. That's when prayers start getting dangerous. Listen to me. Don't miss this point. They get dangerous because real prayer exposes our motives.

There's been times in prayer when I was realizing that I was doing that from a place of pride and then I had to ask God to forgive me for the proud prayer that I just prayed. It uncovers jealousy and deals with hidden things. That's why some people avoid deep prayer because shallow prayer comforts the flesh. But deep prayer kills the flesh. And flesh, it doesn't die quickly. It doesn't go quietly into the night. It screams and kicks. We got to be careful because if not, what happens if we're not being fruitful in our prayer life, there's a progression that takes place. And I feel like that's what he's dealing with here in this section in this chapter is a progression because we begin to ask a miss. And because we start asking a miss to fulfill our own pleasures, what happens?

By default, by default, if you follow the logic in the chapter and let the spirit guide you and direct you, friendship with the world starts to take place. And friendship with the world weakens spiritual strength. And the enemy knows that. He's always going to encourage it. Oh yeah. Yeah. You're good. You're good. You prayed. You did all right. You had five minutes. You're you're good. Verse number four. Adulterers and adulteresses. Do you not know that friendship with the world is immity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself the enemy of God. Now, here's one of the strongest statements in the chapter. Friendship with the world is enmity with God. Now, he's not saying that you have to isolate yourself from sinners.

I mean, Jesus was called a friend of the sinners, but he had his boundaries established correctly and his flesh was in brought into obedience and crucified the way it needed to be before he allowed the sinners to influence him. Now, here's here's the rubber meeting the road today. And and this is again nothing new under the sun. I just think it's more it's it's more aware because of all of the technology and social media that we have is that we see where so many people are constantly seeking affirmation. Right? Let's be honest. That's why social media is is it's our constant need to be affirmed. But we have people who have these little things as as my granddad used to say, you got something stuck in your crawl. They got they got a little bit of a bend against something and then they go blast it out there, right?

And they let it out and then someone's like, "You go." You get a thumbs up or a heart and then you feel good. So then you just become the keyboard bandit and you feel like I am setting everybody straight and then you never stop to ask yourself what's my motive behind this? What's the gain? James is not saying we isolate from sinners but we got to be careful about the influence they're allowed to have in our life. He's talking about adopting values in the spirit of the world system that is there. The world says promote yourself, protect yourself, exalt yourself, indulge yourself, follow yourself. Those are not kingdom principles, not godly kingdom principles. Kingdom principles. If you want to go to the king in the kingdom, the king says this, you need to deny yourself.

You need to serve others and love sacrificially and walk humbly and submit yourself therefore to God under the mighty hand of God. That's what the word says. But that's not what culture says. What we have is systems who are completely opposed and waring and fighting. This is what James is talking about is you got a war going on inside yourself. You got to make a decision on which one's going to win. And the one that wins is the one you feed the most. You cannot train spiritually while feeding carnality constantly. You cannot become crossfit while living fleshfed. It's like somebody going to the gym and eating donuts every day and wonder why it's not working. There was a certain gym in town that was promoting free pizza. I'm like, "This just doesn't seem like a good deal here.

Come to the gym and work out and we'll feed you pizza." What are you doing? Don't think you're going to get the results you're looking for. You cannot live in a carnal way and be a spirit-led individual. It doesn't work. It's an impossibility. Some point input matters. And you have to understand that. That's part of maturing in your walk with God. It matters what I'm feeding myself. I'm not talking about physically. I'm talking about spiritually. What am I what am I allowing to come in? What am I digesting? What am I putting in me? What it matters. It matters. It matters what voices you're listening to. Look, there's there's so many I'm thankful for the abundance of technology and information that we have as long as you're filtering it correctly because you can find someone that'll agree with you on about anything you want.

I mean, you want to be for freerange chickens, there's podcast and books out there, and I'm not against freerange chickens, but if you're for caged chickens, you're going to get somebody support you in cage chickens. Whatever whatever you have, I promise you there's somebody else out there that will join your rally cry. It doesn't mean either one of you are right. The cross and the world pull in opposite directions and eventually you have to choose which one which team do you belong to. You cannot be a friend of the world and be a friend of God. A friend of the world according to James makes you an enemy with God, but he gives grace to the humble. Verse number six, but he gives more grace. Therefore, he says, God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

I'm thankful for that sentence because James has been cutting pretty deep. I'm so glad we got some hope there because it felt like he was just drilling, drilling, drilling. He's exposed selfishness and pride and worldliness and wrong motives and conflict. But then he says he gives more grace. I'm so thankful for grace. Man, I need God's grace in my life. And the truth is, you need his grace, too. We need it every day. Sometimes every minute of every day, we need his grace. I'm so thankful that he gives it. He gives I love the wording more grace. Not barely enough grace, but more grace. Grace for prideful people who repent. Grace for selfish people who surrender. Grace for broken people who humble themselves. Grace for struggling people who come honestly before God and ask for help.

And he says God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. That word resist is powerful. It carries that literal interpretation of opposing what was there. God opposes pride. Why? Why would he do that? Why would why would it bother God that you had pride? Well, pride says I know best. Pride says I deserve better than this. I want to control. I don't need to be corrected. I know what's best for me. That's what pride says. Pride's the the three-year-old saying, "No, I can." When they have no comprehension that they can't. But pride declares openly and defiantly, "I do. I do." Pride is dangerous because pride keeps people from repentance and keeps people from growing and keeps people from from doing the right things. They become defensive.

It destroys marriages and friendships and churches and leaders. But I'm so thankful that he gives grace to the humble. That if you can just turn your attitude and turn your mindset and walk away and realize I don't know everything and that I do need help, God. I need help every day of my life. I need you. Without you, I cannot do anything on my own. God, I have to have you. And in those moments when true humility comes out, grace shows up. Grace to get us through. Humility attracts grace. Not perfection, ladies and gentlemen. Not perfection, but humility is drawn. God does not say, "I give grace to people who never fail." That should make you feel better. That makes me feel better. He says, 'I give grace to the humble. People who repent quickly, people who stay teachable, people who stay surrendered, people who are always saying, you know what, I got to have it.

I got to have it. I can't go a day without him. I can't. To me, I feel like part of maturing in your walk with God is to understand that it is possible for you to pray always. That doesn't mean you go around mumbling all the time, but there's a constant awareness of the fact that his spirit is always with me. It's always around me. I'm just engaged in it. I don't always have to be talking to him about I'm just knowing. I'm aware that he's there. He's there with me. And that awareness alone should always make us be more attuned that my decisions and my actions have consequences. So, I need to stay humble before him because as long as my humility is where it needs to be, grace continues to roll. So, that when maybe I'm not having my best day.

All right? And again, maybe this is just meant for Pastor Kevin. Sometimes I don't always have the best days. Sometimes my attitude is a little sour. Sometimes I can be a little short. Sometimes I don't always behave the best. But when I'm aware of that moment, when it hits me like, "Wow, that was that was kind of harsh. Maybe you Kevin, you need to back up on that. You need to apologize." Humbly ask, "God, please forgive me. There's grace." not to be abused, not to give me license to treat anybody the way I want to. That's not what it's about, right? That we got we got a Bible that tells us that that we shouldn't we shouldn't continue in sin that grace may abound. God forbid. That's not what it's for. It's a it's an awareness that everywhere I am, he's there, too.

You know, as growing up is most most kids sometimes we acted a little different when mom and dad weren't watching. Have you noticed that? You ever again I go back to those moments and raising kids and you kind of know when things are quiet that's not good. Did you realize that if you have some if you have kids at home under five quiet unless it's bedtime is never good is it? When it gets quiet what do we do? I got to go find out what's going on. It's been too quiet. What do you do? You kind of do that. You peek around the corner and then when they see, you know, they're they're doing whatever. They're they're loading rocks in the washing machine and they act different because all of a sudden mom or dad's looking. Where can you go from him?

Even David understood this concept. God, where can I go from you? If I make my bed in hell, there you are. I can't get away from you. So there's there's the reality that we all know this. He's always with us, but we don't always act like he's always with us. But maturing is understanding that he walks with me every day. So I need to act like it. I need to learn how that even if culture doesn't support his, culture thinks humility is weakness, but biblically humility is strength under submission. Submission, ladies and gentlemen, is the path to victory. You want the victorious life, right? That's what we want. But I'm thankful for the things I have here on this earth. I'm thankful for the house that we have and the cars that I that I'm able to drive and the bed and I get to sleep in and that Mark keeps my air conditioner working.

And I'm I'm thankful for all those things. But that's not the end goal. That's not the end goal, ladies and gentlemen. heaven, being with him. That's that's where I want. If I'm going to get there, if that if I'm going to have victory in this life, it only comes through surrender. My life surrendered to him. My will surrendered to his will, bringing myself into obedience that is there. James 4:7, therefore, submit to God. Boy, that's an ugly word today, isn't it? Nobody likes to submit. But he says submit to God. Then it says what? What's the next word? Resist. So we got submission and resistance. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Notice the order. Submit first. Resist second. A lot of people want authority over the devil without being submitted to God.

It doesn't work that way. You have to be submitted. And submission comes through humility. So people think humility is weak. And I'm telling you, it's not weakness. It's strength. When I'm surrendered to him, then I do have the ability to say, "Devil, you have no place in my home. Devil, you have no place touching my family. You can resist." James says, "When you submit to God and resist the devil, he flees." Not negotiates, not hangs around politely. He says he flees. Why? Because surrendered people become dangerous to hell. >> You listen to me. Surrendered people become dangerous to hell. The enemy fears believers who are genuinely submitted to God. He doesn't want that. He's going to do everything he can to encourage your feelings and to to and to to and to and to incite your flesh so that it's not submitted because he knows as long as you're not submitted, you're weak.

>> But the moment you become submitted to God, he can't do anything with you. Do you did you hear what I just said? He cannot do anything with you when you are submitted to God. When you are when you're brought down, you humbly come before him and then you resist. He flees. He runs. He turns and goes from you. Why? Because he's afraid of you. So the world may say it's crazy. But I'm not working on the world's economy. I'm working on God's economy. And the word says if I'm submitted, I can resist and he will run away. Real repentance is not image management, ladies and gentlemen. It is heart being surrendered before God. Crossfit Christianity is not behavior modification. It's transformation through surrender. Transformation. That's why one of the wonderful things about being pastor is coming along with people and watching them over time as they continue to discover what the word of God has for them in their life and as they begin to to make changes and embrace all that God has for them and understand all that is there laid out in scriptures for them and they continue to move in a direction towards him and a life being surrendered.

You can see as they mature and walk and gain strength. What's frustrating is those who just plateau and they never move any further and they feel like they've just arrived. I want you to know maybe you've arrived. I I haven't. I've spent the overwhelming majority of my life dedicated to God and reading and studying this word. I'm here to tell you I'm still discovering things that I never even really seen in here. Humility comes before lifting. Verse number 10. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and he will lift you up. Who's going to do it? He will. So here this is the beautiful thing that gets missed so many times by by being openly humble and submitted to God is we feel like we have to stay in this surrendered state as if I'm always bowed down and cowered down before him.

That's not what takes place is when I'm surrendered and I'm humble before him. He comes in, Sister Bran, and he lifts us up. Not in a prideful way, but in the same way when we see our children, I know I keep using this example. When we see them and they turn their head down and they're a little down on themselves, what do we do as moms and dads? We reach down and we embrace them and we lift them up and say, "Look, I've got you." How beautiful is that? That if I stay surrendered to him, God takes that surrender and lifts me up. His that means his arms are wrapped around me. And I'm so thankful that he does that. I'm I'm telling you, in some of my darkest times in my life, in some of my lowest moments when I didn't know what else to say, I just simply said, "God, can you hold me today and to feel him come not physically with those arms, but almost feels like it he wraps around me and he just holds me for a minute."

And and sometimes my circumstances change and sometimes they don't change. I'm still dealing with the same problem, but he's holding me up. I'm not having to rely on my strength alone, but there's something much bigger holding me down or holding me up. That's the kingdom order. Humility first, exaltation second. The world says promote yourself. But Jesus says humble yourself. The world says build you a platform. And Jesus says come take up a cross. daily follow me. James says when we humble ourselves before God, he lifts us up. And God does a far better job of lifting people than people do lifting themselves. Here's what I've noticed in in my 50 years of life. Self-promotion creates fragile people. Even the most bold and brazen of the bunch oftentimes are merely putting on a front that when you really get to know them, they're some of the most insecure people I've ever known in my life.

The people that from from a distance and you look at their life and you look at their track record and their successes and their awards and their accolades and their all the things that the world says is is you're there, you've arrived, they've got the stuff. I've known some individuals and you really get to talking to them, they're the most insecure, fragile. It it's really sad what's there. So self-promotion oftentimes creates very fragile people. Humility, however, creates stability. Maybe that sounds so crazy to you, but I've met some very humble people that just seem to be able to handle whatever God throws their way. Whatever the world brings their way, they're able to take care of it. Humble people are not obsessed with protecting an image.

They're focused on one thing. Pleasing God. Where are you at? I'm getting ready to to start closing this this this out tonight. So, I want to ask, as I always do, I like to ask you questions. I think it's good to end on questions that you need to think about as you leave. James gives us a spiritual workout. I'm going be honest with you. As I was studying this out, this chapter hurt. This hurt. It's like one time I went with my wife to we were doing trying to get a little bit shape. She took me to some some Pilates body pump class and they were using three pound weights. Three pound weights. Three pounds. Like three pound weight. I'm a man. So I grabbed me a 10 pound weight. Even felt a little embarrassed Randy by 10 pounds. I thought I'd be heavier than 10 pounds.

We get in there and they start doing things repeatedly over and over and over again. And I was humbled. My arms began to shake and twitch and quiver. I was thankful, brother Parker, I was in the back corner of the room because I was trying to find that three-lb weight. That 10 was wearing me down. I remember the next day felt like somebody had took a bat and beat me in the middle of the night. And I hurt in places I didn't even know I could hurt. Muscles that I obviously had not used since birth. It's what I felt like sometimes going through this book with James is when you really begin to evaluate and dig into it. It has a way of convicting you. Getting down where you live. If you haven't, I encourage you read the book. It's a short book.

It doesn't take long, but read it slow. Read it thorough. Read it prayerfully. Ask God, "Is there something here that I need to change inside of me?" James forces you and I to examine our motives and confront our pride and to ask questions like this. And I'll leave you with just a few questions tonight. What is still alive in me that needs to die? What is still alive in me that needs to die? Where is flesh still ruling part of my life? Where is flesh still ruling part of my life? I got three more. Where is selfishness still driving me? Where is selfishness still driving me? Where is pride still speaking? Where is pride still speaking? And last question, where am I resisting surrender? Where am I resisting surrender? I want you to think about these questions.

I want you to go home tonight or maybe maybe tomorrow in in your time of prayer and study and devotion. I want you to revisit these questions and and ask God to reveal the answer to you because these these are important questions to know the answer to. Because I dare say I dare say if you if you're honest with yourself, if you're really honest, you're not going to be happy with some of the answers you come back with. And here's what I want you to know. It's okay. I wasn't happy with them either, but it made me aware that I still got some work to do. So, I want you to look at your neighbor right now. Look at your neighbor. You looking at him? I want you to say this. We say this a lot, but it's true. to you. Look at your neighbor and say this.

You're a piece of work. Yeah, we are. Crossfit Christianity means becoming fit for the cross. And the cross always kills what eventually would destroy us anyway. God is not trying to ruin us through surrender. He's trying to save us from ourselves. Did you catch that? I'm going to say it again. And he's not trying to ruin us through surrender. He's trying to save us from ourselves. So So tonight as we get ready to pray and close this out, maybe maybe we just simply say it this, Lord, please show me what still needs to die. Show me what still needs to die. Maybe it's pride. Maybe it's jealousy or or bitterness or self- ambition or worldliness or control. But whatever it is, I want you to know he gives more grace for the humble. So humbly come before him tonight.

That's the beauty of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The cross kills the flesh, but it also brings the resurrection of life. I'm so thankful for that. Aren't you? Will you pray with me right now? Jesus, God, search us tonight. Help us to see. Help us to know and identify, Lord, the places and things that are still needing to die out inside of us. Things that we're fighting and going against your will and your purpose for our life. God, expose any areas of pride or selfishness or bitterness or jealousy or any any wrong ambitions that we have inside of us. And teach us, God, to submit ourselves to you, to come before you with the right attitude humbly, Lord, to receive more grace. Help us to be surrendered and obedient. Help us to live the life that you've called us to live to fulfill our kingdom purpose and plan that you've set in order from the very first day we we drove breath.

Help us do what only we can do through you. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.