Epistle Of James
Trusting God & His Word | Standing Firm In Faith 04
[Music] Please turn your Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 16. We are doing a series right now called "How to Stand Firm in Your Faith." And everybody has had opportunity. And we are, you know, we live in a fallen world. Have you all figured that out yet? It is a fallen world that we live in. And things are not the way they should be. You know, and, but there is something that we need to, we need to acknowledge that something has been given to us to overcome all of that. Now we can't overcome people, but we can overcome circumstances, we can overcome situations, we can overcome the devil. Amen, and we're not meant to put up with all of it. And, you know, one of the things that, in 1997, a particular minister got up and said something quite profound, you know, he said that, "If the body of Christ doesn't understand its authority, then regardless of how much power that we have, the devil is going to win the fight because we don't know, because we're not walking in it." And I've, you know, I've just been looking at the way things have been going. And I see that. I just see the place where the body of Christ in our submission to God. We're going to be talking about that next. Okay, that's the next chapter we're getting to in my little book anyway. All right, we're going to be talking about submitting to God. But it needs to, you need to understand that you have to do both, resist the devil and submit to God. You can't just submit to God and hope everything goes away. And this is what, this is the reason why I like James, you know, when he says, "Submit therefore to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you." There is the formula, it's both things. And, you know, I think at one point in time, what a faith God's so busy resisting, they forgot to submit to God. And others submitted to God and the devil. They submitted to everything. And we need to find that place, family, where we know where to submit and where to fight. We must not submit to the devil and fight God, because that's been happening too. Amen. You know, I mean, things have just been so upside down. And we get mad at God for things that go wrong in our life. So we're fighting him. And when things go wrong, we're like, "Well, yeah, you know, case or asa or whatever will be." And that's submitting to the devil. This is all wrong. Are you all here? So, you know, my job is to straighten your thinking. Okay, do the best that I can and get you to a place where you are submitting to God and you are resisting the devil. And that way God can bless you and the devil will flee. Amen? All right. So that's not all part of what I want to talk about today. But anyway, I need to say that because 1 Corinthians 16, 13 says, the apostle Paul writing there says, "Watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong." What happened to brave and strong? I don't know, it went out the window somewhere. You know, we have to get to the place where we are brave, where we are strong, that we stand fast in the faith. I like the new Rabbi's standard version. It says, "Keep alert." You know, for the word "watch," he says, "Keep alert." I think so much at the time, we don't keep alert. You know, the devil just sneaks in, attacks, does whatever he wants to do. And we miss it. And we think what happened? We need to stay spiritually alert, family. We really need to keep our spiritual eyes open. We are so good at keeping our natural eyes open. You know, when you're driving, that's not the time to put a blindfold on. You're on the road, okay? You need to see where you're going. You need to look for signs, you need to look at things. You know, one of the things that they talk about when you're driving is to anticipate what's coming. If you're coming into a school area or whatever, slow down because you don't know what's going to run across the road. Are you all with me? You know, you really need to anticipate things, and you need to see things, and you need to anticipate what's coming. We do that in the natural, but in the spirit, we don't look. Constantly things are taking us with surprise, because our spiritual eyes are shut, and we need to open our spiritual eyes. Are you all here? Amen? So that's really what I'm asking you to do right now. That's a part of submitting to God. That's a part of saying, "God, you show me." Do you know God wants to show you what's going on? You know, he made on that, please, okay? He really does want to show you, but it's up to you to see it. It's up to you to go to him. It's up to you to receive what he's showing you and not fight the thing. You know, one of the problems that we have is we fight everything that we see. If it's not good and it's not happy, then we're going, "Well, you know what? I rebuke that." You know, yeah, you need to rebuke the right thing. When something is going wrong, rebuke the thing that is behind the thing that's going wrong, not that you're seeing something you don't like. Did you get the difference? I'm preaching better than you are saying, amen. Anyway, it doesn't matter. You know what? I can only do the best that I can. It's up to you guys to receive this if you don't receive it, but I believe that you're receiving it, because I will not accept anything else. All right. So last week, we looked at one of the things in Proverbs chapter 30 and verse 5. We looked at the fact that we need to stand firm, both on God's Word and God. We need to trust God and we need to trust His Word. And we see this in certain scriptures, and I really love these scriptures. I want to go back over them very quickly as we move forward. Again in Proverbs 30 and verse 5, it says, "Every word of God is tested and proves true. Every word of God." Yeah, but that didn't work for me. Well, you know what? We need to work things. Are you all here? You need to do that. We need to get to the place where we're working things. We need to confess things. We need to make an effort. It's not going to fall on us. I know you want it to, but you got, you know, this is all the new revised standard version at the moment. No. Yeah, it is. New revised standard version. So again, it says, "Every word of God is tested and proves true. Now watch, now we go to God that He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him." So we, you know, as we are standing on the Word, we need to take refuge in God. Are you with me? We're not in this fight by ourselves. God is there. He's got His arm around us and He's saying, "You stand, you confess, you declare things as you need to. I'll look after you." Amen. Amen. And we need to trust both. We need to have faith for both. Amen? Also, we went to Psalm 18. Let's quickly go there. Verses 30 through 32. It says, "As for God, His way is perfect." I really, you know, I think we need to get a revelation on that because we always think something is wrong with God. You know, something isn't working. You know, "God, what's wrong?" Okay. I want you to see that first section there. It says, "As for God, His way is perfect." He is perfect. There's nothing wrong on His side of things. It's always on our side of things. And then we'll talk about that a little bit today. It goes in to say, "The Word of the Lord is proven." So we see, first of all, the Word of the Lord is proven. And then watch, remember, we looked at problems before now we're looking at Psalms. And it says, "He is a shield to all who trust in Him." So we have two different areas talking about the same thing. One about His Word that can be trusted and also He is trustworthy. Amen, and He is a shield. He will protect us. And it says here in verse 31, "For who is God except the Lord, and who is a rock except our God?" Watch verse 32, "It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect." Isn't it beautiful that it started with God's way? Watch again, it says, "As for God, His way is perfect." And then it ends with, "He will make your way perfect." Ooh, hallelujah. That kind of needs to go off on the inside of us a little bit, you know, because you know what happens? That's what people normally say, "Yes, yes, you know, God's way is perfect." My way is all over the place and I don't know what I'm doing and I'm going to fail. No, no, no. If you trust in God, if He is your shield, then He's perfect where we'll become your perfect way. He will see to it because He will guide your steps. Are you all with me? That's where we left off. In other words, now let me read. As Christians, born of God, with the armor of God and in the power of the Spirit. You need you to get all of that. You are born of God, you have the armor of God and you've got the power of the Spirit. In the power of the Spirit, all right, we are to stand firm in our faith and also stand fearlessly up to the devil, knowing that neither God nor His word will ever fail. We need to know that, family. We need to know that if we stand on God's word, neither will fail. God nor His word will fail. The problem is we don't stand firm. A lot of times we're the ones that are vacillating. You know, we're on, we're off, we're up, we're down, okay. It's like a ship on the ocean. I've said here, let me just read all this. If there is any failure, listen, it's either the devil getting in the way and we need to take a stand and resist Him or we've got off track somewhere and we need to realign ourselves with God and get back in His will. Did you get both of those things? We do have an enemy. Remember we looked at that first. There is something arrayed against us. He's called our adversary. Okay, that's a bad dude, okay. That's the thing that comes against us. That's the thing that sees us as its enemy. You might be the sweetest, loveliest person on the planet and it just wants to pick on you. That's what Jesus said, He comes to steal, kill and destroy. Do we not understand this? He doesn't come to be your best friend, help you get away with things and you have a great life and it's like cooling everything. He is out to destroy you. Everything He says out of His mouth is a lie. It will never, listen to me, listen, it will never benefit you, ever. It will always end in your destruction. Anything that God says will always end in you being blessed. It will always end in you looking at yourself in a way that you can be happy and proud about yourself in a godly sense. You understand what I'm saying? But anything the enemy does, it will have the exact opposite effect. And so every time we fight God, every time we say no to God, every time God is moving on us to do something and we're fighting that we are fighting against the thing that is trying to get us to a place where we will live in that joy that He came to give us, that we will live in a peace that goes beyond all understanding, that we can stand and be proud of our lives so to speak in a godly sense and say, you know what, that was good, that was a good life, that Jesus will say, well done, thou good and faithful servant. Not what happened. Oh gee, how do we get back in Israel? First John 1, 9 and 10. I want to read two of those verses. We usually only look at first John 1, 9 today, I want to go to verse 10 as well. So he says here, if we confess our sins, family, anything you do wrong, I don't care what it is. Oh, but you don't know what I've done. I don't need to know. And please don't tell me. You know, some days I'd much rather not know. Okay, I'm just saying, doesn't it say in the Bible we're meant to confess our false one to another? Yes, in James it says that. But you know why we need to do that? That's where the Catholic priest got it from. But you know why we need to do that? Because some people need somebody to tell them that they're forgiven. Others can take it by faith. They can just do this and receive their forgiveness and move on. Different people and different places, family. And it's fine. Do you know that's the wonderful thing about God? He doesn't say to you, oh, you can't get it on this level where you're not getting it. He says, what do you need? You need somebody? We'll give you somebody. You're okay by yourself? Okay by yourself. It's cool. Okay? You know, that's the difference between Timothy and Titus. No, they were both were the both were the proteges. They both worked with Paul. Okay. I can't get the word out today. Okay? But it's really interesting. Timothy had to get circumcised. Titus don't get near me. You don't... Hello? You know why? And Paul used Titus in an example. See Timothy was kind of like, you know, he'd get thrown up by the women of the church. Kind of. You know, I'm trying to say, okay. You know, he's wonderful in everything, you know, but, you know, he didn't have a father and everything. He just had a mother and a grandmother and, you know, he grew up like that. But Titus, there's a man's man. Okay? I mean, Paul left him on Crete. You know, when they say you're Kriton, that's where it comes from. It's people in Crete, they're horrible people, okay? And Paul left him there and he just straightened out, he started a church and straightened the whole bunch out. Isn't that something? But Timothy there, he'd be dead, okay? So this guy doesn't get circumcised because he's good, he's cool, he's okay. He doesn't need all that stuff. He knows who he is in Christ. And Paul used him, interesting, as an example of a person that doesn't need to be circumcised, that doesn't need to follow Jewish tradition anymore, and God will still bless them and work through them. Thank God for Titus. Amen? So it shows us. But you know what? Paul saw Timothy and he understood that Timothy needed this, that when he was, you know, when he went up against the wall, you know, with sort of the Jewish leaders and that hierarchy that he needed to say, yes, I'm circumcised, they go, okay, we will leave you alone then. You know, whatever, God's good, isn't he? And he sees you all for who you are, and he's made provision for all of you, for where you are, Hallelujah. So as much as we say all these things, you know, sometimes we may get a little overzealous in the way we believe, but it's only because we're wanting the very best for you, and we're fighting for the best for you, amen? But we allow you to do it in your own time, because we can't rush some things, and we should never do that, Hallelujah. So he says here, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. But watch verse 10, if we say we have not sinned, okay, that we've done nothing wrong, he says we make him a liar and his word is not in us, isn't that interesting? He says if we, if we say we're fine, we got a problem. We need to realize that we ain't fine, that's the whole reason that we have armor, that's the whole reason that we have God, that's the whole reason we have 1st John 1 9, that's the reason why we have a great high priest up there. We don't need all that stuff if we're okay, amen? Now I'll turn the page, Hallelujah. Of course, in all this, you must know what God's word says about your situation and have faith in him and his word, there's no way around it. So see, this is one of the things that we kind of, let me see if I can say this right. We were led to believe and I think we're sort of thinking ourselves on the inside and the deepest reasons of our thinking, that if we come into the kingdom of God then everything will be okay, that God will look after everything and we can sail through life now, all things will be calm and well and will be peaceful and will have health and will have money and will have joy and will have all the stuff and, you know, it's going to be great, man, are you kidding? Whoever sold you, that sold you a lie. We are in, you know, the Bible calls us an army. Did you know that? Do you know you belong to an army? Which means you are prepped for battle. We have medics but we're not running a hospital. We really need to get this, you know, because a lot of people feel like when they come in and dear Lord, you know, I see this and people come in and suddenly get all woozy and you know, I have a pain and I have a this and I have a that and everybody has to, you know, stand there and pet their little brow and, you know, kind of all that stuff and we love you and we want to do that for you. But you can't stay in bed all day. You know, you have a destiny. You need to get up and go do something. Are you all with me? This is where Joshua was, you know. Let's go to Joshua chapter one. Joshua is facing the worst battle of his life and the Lord didn't say to Joshua, Joshua, it's cool, dude. You have to take care of everything. You just stay in bed till late and don't worry about anything. I'll just look after everything. Yeah, you know, we wish he said that. But let's see what he actually said. He says this book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth. Watch where it's not meant to depart from your mouth, which means you can't say we're going to die. We're going to die. We're going to die. We're going to die and say stuff like that. The scripture is, it's a New King James Version, Joshua chapter one and verse eight. Okay. So notice he says, this is, you do this. He's giving Joshua instructions. He's saying he, can I just, can I play on the other side? He didn't say, Joshua, I am almighty God. I'm going to stand here. And if anybody comes close, you'll squish them like a bug. Because I can, you know, because this is how people think they think God, you know, because God is kicking to anything and he'll squish everybody like a bug and everything. And I'll just stand there and I have to just add my little tea party. I'm having high tea today. Jesus is, no, I told you you're in a army, you're in a battle. We are in a fight. And he says this book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night. Dear Lord. Do you know why? Because he's saying instead of you worrying day and night, do you know we can worry day and night while we're eating, we can worry while we're sleeping, we can worry while we're driving, we can worry, we can worry all the time. We're great at it. I don't know how to meditate. Oh, you do it all the time. Worrying is meditating on the wrong thing. Okay. So if you can worry, you, you are well versed in meditation. You're probably some kind of genius level by now. Some people are in that level. I mean, they can worry about anything. They can find something to worry about regardless. Hallelujah. Yeah. And they'll say praise the Lord too, but you know, but do you know, that's all it is. It's being able to hold a thought in your head. You guys meditate when on the plus side, have you ever seen somebody just about going on vacation? They're so close going, they're already on vacation. I mean, their body is at work, but their mind is on vacation already. How do you know that? Well, I might have done that once or twice, but you know, no, seriously man, I mean, I'm already there. I got my little my ties and the little umbrellas and I'm sitting at work and my brain is somewhere else. I'm there. I'm not here. This is like, hurry up. Let's finish this. Let's get on with it. I was meditating. Okay, I needed to see this because you guys don't get, you know, you need to understand that you have the capacity to do it. So whenever the devil lies and says you can't do this, you can, and you can do it day and night and you can do it in the midst of everything else that you're doing, you can, you can do it. You've got the ability to do it. So this is why he's telling Joshua, you meditate in a day and night, watch, he says that you may observe to do according to all that is written there, written in it. So he's saying, listen, that's the reason why you're going to meditate so that it will speak to you and it will tell you what you need to do according to all that is written. Do you know one of the things that happens is let's go back to your vacation, all right? So you're thinking about your vacay, all right, and you're thinking, oh, I'm going to go there. But you know what happens and you suddenly think, oh, wait, I should do this or I forgot to do that, or you know things according to see, you're meditating and so it's becoming clear and you're beginning to see things that you missed, you're with me. And that's exactly what you're meant to do with God's word. As you start meditating on it, it will start to show you things and you'll begin to pick out things that you missed. And you, it won't be that you're doing everything according to what is written. You've missed a few written bits, you've missed a few steps somewhere and it'll help you to find your way back onto that. And watch, it says, for then you will make your way prosperous. You know that what's incredible about this? It didn't say I will make your way prosperous. Please catch this. Now he's going to tell him some of the things that he's going to do. But watch here, he says, you will make your way prosperous. You know why? Because the word of God works every single time. Not one word will fail. If you do according to what's written, you will make your way prosperous because the word will lead you and guide you and God will back up his word. He confirms his word with signs following. So he says, then you will make your way prosperous, you will have good success. You want to be prosperous, you want to be successful? And this is what you do, verse 9. He says, have I not commanded you, be strong and of good courage? In other words, he says, don't be a wimp. Don't sit there and go, if God's not going to do it, I'm going to fail. Don't do that. You need to do something, you need to stand, you need to fight. And he says, have I not commanded you, this is a command to be strong and of good courage. He said, do not be afraid nor dismayed for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. Did you see that? He's saying, this is the, I told you, it's not without him, it's all with him. And he's saying, listen, you do all of this, you meditate on the word. You observe to do according to all that is written therein. You will make your way prosperous, you'll have good success. Be strong, be courageous, I'm never going to leave you wherever you go there. And if things get a little too hairy, I'll step in. That's what he's saying. But he doesn't want a bunch of kids, babies and nappies walking around, you know. And every time there's a problem, we spit the dummy and go, where? And God goes, again, I just think God's looking at some people and going, are they ever going to grow up? One pastor actually said this, I'll relate this to you, big church is a big church. And he said, you know, I feel like every morning I get up there and I've got a big milk feeding bottle and I'm just going through the congregation and okay, okay, next one, you know, they don't even feed themselves or nothing, they just all want to be fed and then we want to go home and we'll come next week and get fed again, and never grow up. This is a pastor of a big church, I won't tell you who, anyway. This verse lets us know that we must know God's word if we are to stand firm. Did you hear that? We must know God's word if we are to stand firm and stand our ground against the devil. And a part of that word is knowing that the Lord your God is with you wherever you go, wherever you go. In the New Testament, we have so much more because, now do you remember, this is Joshua. This is before Jesus died, amen, I mean, he didn't have the new birth, he had nothing. Today, we have 1 John 5, 4, whatever is born of God, are you born of God? Yes, you are, I hope you are, okay, whoever isn't, all you have to do is receive Jesus Christ as Lord and say, Jesus, I receive you as Lord, you're in, okay, I thought it was more complicated, let's not make it more complicated, acts makes it even simpler. It says whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved, do you know I heard a funny story about that? This lady, there were preaching about some things and they said, you know, sometimes we don't even believe what we preach. And so, you know, with that preface, she said how she was preaching and she mentioned this verse and this big guy, there was this guy that used to make trouble all the time and everything else, and he was sitting in the back and he just comes up the front and he says, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, four times, okay, if you didn't count. And she said, you want to be saved? He goes, I'm saved. She goes, no, no, let me lead you in a sinless flesh. He goes, I'm saved. She said, but I have to, and he said, didn't you just say whoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved, see how we congregate things? The dude God said he didn't want anybody else to do anything and became a pillar of the church from a troublemaker and a person that constantly, he would come up while people are preaching and take the pulpit, he was so huge, he would take, it was in wood. You know, take the pulpit and dash it on the ground. I mean, he wouldn't make trouble, this guy did not like church, and this happens. And he gets saved, then he would stand there and watch anybody try to come and wreck the pulpit, he was there, hello, oh Lordy, that went the whole the other way, praise God. So no, don't make it complicated, just call in the name of the Lord, you're there. He wants to get theological and complicated, you know, don't let him, okay? So that's all you need, but back in the first year on 5/4, see how simple it was? All right, it says whatever is born of God, overcomes the world, isn't overcome by the world, they overcome the world. And he said, and this is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith. Do you know that's the victory? Notice it says this is the victory that has overcome the world and it describes and it tells you and identifies what that victory is, it says our faith. Do you know your faith is victory? Your faith isn't, I hope so. Did y'all get that? You know what my next statement is? Now just so I don't leave you high and dry here are some scriptures to get you started and I ran at the time. You know what? Can you give me five minutes? I will read through the scriptures, but I'll come back next week and we'll talk about these scriptures because you need to know them in a little bit more detail. If you are dealing with physical or emotional hurts, there's Isaiah 53 verses 4 and 5 which says surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem him, stricken, spit in my God and afflicted. The new living translation puts it this way, he says we thought his troubles were a punishment from God for his own sins. It goes in saying verse 5 but he was wounded for our transgressions, our rebellion. He was bruised for our inequities or our sins and it says the chastisement or the punishment for our peace was upon him and by his stripes we were healed. Hallelujah. Amen or we are healed. If you're dealing with fear, there's first Timothy chapter 1 verse 7 which says for God has not given us a spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind. The way you use these is that when fear starts rising up you say no. The Bible says, God says that I haven't been given a spirit of fear. I have been given a spirit of power and of love and of a sound mind. Amen? This is how you use it. We'll talk about this next week more. Okay? Added to this there was also Isaiah 41 and verse 10. It says fear not for I am with you. Whenever you feel alone and whenever you feel like the mountains getting too big and the fight is getting too whatever, just say no because the devil will say you're on your own dude, you're not going to win this, I'm bigger than you. And then you say to him, hey, let me remind you that God said I am with you. You coming against me, you're coming against God. You really want to go up with that? You lost the last time and you're headed for hell now. You're headed for the lake of fire. Let me remind you about your future. You know, remind the devil a little bit about his future. He won't stay long. He doesn't want to hear about what's going to happen to him. Okay? Hey, we sing a song that the angels don't get to sing. It's a song of redemption. Hallelujah, flash that card around, okay? Just use it. He says fear not for I am with you. Be not dismayed for I am your God. I will strengthen you. I will talk about this next week. I will help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. When it comes to protection, Joshua 1, 9, I commanded you. We looked at that today. Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the Lord, your God is with you wherever you go. And to this in Romans 831, what then shall we say to these things if God is for us who can be against us? I'm not going to put all the scriptures up, by the way, because it would drive me crazy trying to do this at the end. These will come up next week, okay, at the bottom, okay? And there's Isaiah 54, 17, oh, I might, you know, just give in and do it all. It says, "No weapon formed against you shall prosper." They'll form it, but it won't work if you don't let it. Those of you that have any kinds of needs, my God shall supply all you need according to His riches in glory. Psalm 23 1, "From the new living translation, the Lord is my shepherd. I have everything I need." Hallelujah. If you like peace, John 14 27, peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. We'll look at that in more detail as well. And also there is Philippians 4, 6, "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prince application we thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God, and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will God your hearts and minds." Through Christ Jesus, amen? So those are just a few examples, we'll look at them in more detail next time because you really need to know these scriptures and use these scriptures. You need to confess these things over yourself and you need to use them as the sword that they need to be in your mouth against the devil. Amen? Let's have every head bowed, every close father we thank you today for your word and we thank you father that you have equipped us, you have given us everything that we need to fight to overcome, to be more than conquerors and we just thank you father that he does take effort on our part and we thank you father that you help us with this, that you help us to grow up, that you help us to be the sons and the daughters that you designed and destined for us to be in Jesus' name, amen. [Music] [MUSIC PLAYING]