Epistle Of James
Renewing & Resisting | Standing Firm In Faith 11
[music] Please turn your Bible to 1 Corinthians chapter 16. This has been our foundation scripture for this series, "How to Stand Firm in Your Faith." This is where the Apostle Paul writes, and I've been reading from the New King James version and the new revised standard version, where he says again, "Watch or keep alert, stand fast or stand firm in your faith, be brave or courageous and be strong." So we are learning to do all of this. I mean, this is a mouthful, but we are learning that there is an enemy. We are learning that we need to do something. You know, we can't just say, "Well, God is in charge of everything, and He'll look after everything." We have been said here. You know what God did in Genesis 1, 26. You know that no word of God fails. You all know that, okay? And so whatever command God puts out, that remains true forever. See, Satan has been trying to break that ever since the beginning. Because if anything is ever not the way God said, it would make God a liar. And who's the father of liars? Jesus said in John 844. Satan is the father of liars. Amen? And so God's word can never break, and we need to understand this. And so when He said to man, that is male and female, to have dominion and to subdue, that never changed. It remains till today. And even today, we're still doing what our ancestors did at a many. We're still passing the buck. We're still not taking responsibility and doing what we need to do. And then we blame everybody else for our failures. Amen? Now we are meant to be working with God on this. And that's, you know, that's why I like the passages in Mark where it says the Lord working with them. It didn't say the Lord was working for them, and they weren't working for the Lord. Now we do everything for the Lord. I do everything else unto the Lord, okay? Because the apostle Paul talks about that as well. But we need to understand that this is a partnership. We understand that He is God. This is not an equal partnership, okay? It's a partnership, but there's God. There's the Creator and the creation. And it's wonderful that He wants to work with us, and that He has given us certain things that need to be done. If we don't do it, it won't get done. When God asks you to witness to somebody, guess what? He won't come down in a burning bush and do it. You're the burning bush. Burn! Burn, baby. You know? I mean, we had just, you know, let somebody else do it. Well, you're there? Isn't it interesting we say, "God, use us, wear your hands, wear your feet." And God goes, "Where are my hands and feet?" Or you mean that kind of where? You know, never mind. Anyway, it's too early in the morning for that. Okay. But we need to understand something that God will work through us. But in Him working through us, you know we have an enemy. We also need to understand that He is set against everyone, not just you, everybody. And so that's the reason why the Apostle Paul is saying, you know, you need to stand firm. You need to be watchful. You need to keep an eye out. He is constantly on the attack. He's a roaring lion seeking whom He may devour. But remember, we have the lion of the tribe of Judah on the inside of us. You know, interesting little side note. Do you know Judah is the tribe of praise? Jesus is the lion of the tribe of praise. That's why the praise and worship is so important. You want Him to be the lion in your life? See, He's the true lion. And there's the other one that's like a roaring lion. He's into pretenses. But the real thing lives in you. And we need, that's why the whole church service is important. In fact, our whole life needs to be life of worship and praise before God. You know, I mentioned in my training videos for the home fellowships, one of the things that I'd said in there was that, you know, unlike church, that there are things that we do in home fellowship, like read scriptures and take communion. All is a part of worship. And Passoverity was saying, "But isn't a whole life worship?" And I said, "Yes, it is." But I don't know if people really know that. So I made a distinction there. But our whole life should be worship. Everything we do should be worship before God. Our giving is worship. Our helping people is worship. Everything is worshiping God. Your whole life is that. Now I want to talk to you about that today. All right? I segued. Okay. So last time we talked about 2 Corinthians 10. Remember the Apostle Paul said again, "For we walk in the flesh." Excuse me. He says, "For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh." So we are walking in the flesh. "But even though we do, our warfare isn't here." Are you all with me? Amen? He says in verse 4, he says, "For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds." Now he's going to identify where the fight is. He says in verse 5, "Casting down imaginations and every high thing that exhorts itself against the knowledge of God." Boy, there are so many things that exhort themselves against the knowledge of God. It comes against you. It's screaming at you. And why do we do we stand on the word? Why? Because it's a more sure word of prophecy. Beyond all the visions and everything else, this is what stands. This is what God has said. This is what God will honor. And this is what God will watch over to perform. Are you all with me? Amen? So many people are praying stuff that are outside of this and asking God why He won't do it. He said He'll watch over His word, not the stuff you just want. James talks about that I don't have time, I won't do it today, but James talks about that in James 4. He says, "Why do you fight amongst yourselves and war against? Because you don't have, and you don't have because you don't ask." But then he says, "When you ask and you don't receive, it's because you're asking for your flesh with wrong motives." So I can say to the person, "I have three calls, you only have one." I have a three story house, you only have a two story house. I have six pools, you only have one. See, I'm prospering in the Lord. Oh, that's not prosperity, that's covetousness. You're naughty, repent. You know, this gospel is a prosperity gospel, but it's not a covetous gospel. God wants you to have stuff, but He doesn't want stuff to have you. Did you get that? And see, people mix that up, so preachers preach a prosperity gospel so to speak, and people get all upset and annoyed about it and say, "Well, it's not, and everything else." Well, my goodness, the number of verses in this Bible that talks about God wanting to bless His people and, you know, cause them to be fruitful, and even Isaac, in a year of famine, he sold and reaped a hundredfold. God wants you to prosper. God wants you to own all the stuff, because if you own it, the devil doesn't. It's one of those funny things, you know, but if that stuff starts owning you, then no. Isn't that sad that God can't trust His kids with it because soon they get their hands on it? This is where character kicks in. We preach faith so much, but where's the character? We preach faith so that I can have my stuff. What are you doing with the stuff? And by the way, it's not yours. It all belongs to Him. Amen? You know, when He asks me the time, He's saying, "I've given you everything on me back with a certain amount, just for you to realize and remember, it's coming from me, and then I'll honor you with more, because this is how this works." And it's like a child. If you give him a toy and they are bad with it, you won't give him anything else. Well, you know, you try to teach him lessons. It's like the kid that says, "Mine is mine and what's yours is mine." No, okay, we need to learn some lessons. Anyway, this is still not what I want to get to. But I want you to notice that I want to bring this point across, and that is, it's any imagination, anything in your mind, and your mind is where the battleground is. If you're going to stand firm, it needs to start up here. If we waver, that's when James says, "Don't think you're going to get anything from God, because you're all over the place." And so this is the reason my Russell Paul says, casting down imaginations, every high thing that exhorts itself against the knowledge of God, and bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. This is how we resist the devil. Any thought that comes, we need to resist the thought. This is really important. If we don't resist the thought, then it takes root. When it takes root, then we start doing something. Then we get into a habit. Then we have to try to break a habit. And this whole thing just spirals downward. And then we have also the problems down here. If we took care of it up here, if we got rid of the seed, the tree would never be there. We wouldn't be cutting down branches for the rest of our life, and try to uproot the thing. Are you all here? Amen? Dr. J. Mu again said that the verb translated resist can also be translated oppose or withstand. Much of our resisting occurs in our mind, and we withstand and oppose the lies of the enemy. And why the Apostle Paul says in Ephesians 6 verses 13 and 14, I just want to take the back end and the front end, where he says, having done all to stand, stand therefore. You know, we need to do everything to stand, and then stand some more. Now, I know in context, I'm taking a little bit out of context, but the thought is still there. The thought is still there that when we have done all to stand, we still need to keep standing. It means that just standing, you know, for one sort of period of time may not be enough. You need to keep standing. Now, he goes and talks about weapons and so on, but I want you to notice the idea of standing. I want you to understand that in your mind, you have resolved not to back off. Are you all here? You need to get to that place where, see, this is where the strength is. This is why I say we don't fight in the flesh. Our fight is somewhere else. And so many people are, you know, want to come at this like Anush what's nigger? We are looking for spiritual muscle. Okay, we are looking for physical. We are looking for spiritual, because we are up against the spiritual enemy. And he messes with us, and he'll question everything. Did God really say that? Will that really work? He's always questioning, even though the Bible says that there's not one word of God that has failed. He still questions it and gets people to question it. And then as people question it, then it doesn't work. These signs will follow those who believe, not those who question the thing. Amen? So, you know, this is why Jesus said, you know, whoever shall say to this mountain, be that removed, be that constancy, and shall not doubt in his heart, but believe in his heart the things that he says. Those are the things that will come to pass. Not the stuff you doubt about. You're trying to cast a mountain in the ocean. You better not stand there and go, G. I wonder. He'll look back and say, we're not moving for you. This is not happening today. Are you with me? You know, God didn't look out in the beginning and say, wow, it's dark. He would have stayed dark forever. He looked down and said, light be. That's what it didn't say, let there be light. He literally said, light, and it happened. And he said, death and life are in the power of your tongue. Because God made man, male and female, according to his image, his likeness, and said, do the same thing. And we still don't get it. Whatever problem you're facing, the answer is just under your nose. Amen. But the power comes from here, in your heart. Otherwise, they're just empty words. And so many people have been trying to do empty words and get a result. When Jesus warned against that, idle words, empty words, they don't work. What comes from your heart, that works. Your mouth is the instrument that releases the power that is resident inside of your heart. If you have no power in there, then the mouth has nothing to release. And you trying to just say stuff and make it happen won't work. Amen. Thank you. Back to this. I haven't finished yet. All right. So when I've said here to stand, all right, to do this successfully, we need to do everything that the Apostle Paul says in Romans 12 verses 1 and 2. Romans 12, remember again, we are talking about standing firm in our faith. How do we stand firm? There are two incredible verses here. I want to do a word in season on this one. So, oh, yeah, they're starting again. Hallelujah. Sorry, I know everybody isn't hanging out for something in the middle of the week. Well, they're coming. I won't actually do this, but also fits in here. The Apostle Paul writes and he says here, I beseech you therefore brethren. Why is he beseeching? Why is he begging? Because he knows we won't do it. Because what he's about to say next is one of the most difficult things he can ask anyone to do. Because when our bodies are made out of the dust of the ground, when the earth fell, that part fell. That's why the thing has problems. When we got saved, sadly, it didn't get saved. We're getting a resurrection body, but right now, that thing just wants to go everywhere wrong. Do everything wrong, you know, and we need a spirit and a renewed mind to bring it back into line. You know, you know you are a three-part being, you know, a spiritual and body. And the problem is when two side up against the other one. And when the mind and the body side against the spirit, we're in trouble. Because the spirit wants to do what's right. And the mind and the body go somewhere else. But if you can get your mind renewed and then getting working with your spirit, whoa, body is in trouble. For its own good. Because he doesn't know what's good. But you know the funny thing with that? When you get it used to something good, then it'll only want that. Until you slip off and fall off the wagon and again, you know, it's something you train. Are you always me? And that's the reason why we need our spirit and our mind working together. How does that work? Let's start. He says, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God." Yeah, you're getting this. That you present your body's living sacrifice. So you don't go kill it, please. Needs to be alive. Okay. But this is really interesting. He's using that Old Testament kind of imagery to bring his point across. In the Old Testament, we mess up. We'd offer up a sacrifice. Okay. You know what I'm trying to say? Okay. They would, okay. Today, God's looking for you to be that sacrifice. Except he wanted alive. He wants you, he wants you alive, but going in the right direction, doing the right thing. Not letting that thing just go wherever it wants to. If it feels good, it's gotta be good. Are you kidding me? There are people dead out there saying that. You don't want that. No. Okay. So what he says here, that you present your body's. You do this. Nobody else can do this for you. Mommy can't make you a living sacrifice. Your partner can't make you a living sacrifice. They want to, but. Oh God, take this. I'm done with this one. Okay. Oh no. All right. So anyway. All right. He says you, you present your body's. That means whenever your body wants to go in a different direction to what God says, you need to bring it back into line. Understanding, remember I said this before, that our whole life should be worshiped before our whole life should be worshiping God. And this is one of the ways that you worship God. Did you hear me? See, because a lot of times the fears and the things that happen when the enemy comes against you is what you need to resist. You need to come against all the stuff that goes on inside of you that wants to run away or do anything that is ungodly. And I'm not going to give you examples because I don't want to do that. Not for you, not to you today. All right. But notice he says, watch this. He says that you present your body's living sacrifice wholly acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable, rational, intelligent, spiritual service. That's all that's in there. So let me go through all those things. Okay. We still haven't got to verse two yet. All right. But I told you, this is the key to doing this. Your body and your mind, man, I tell you those are the two things, the rest, because if they can come into line, you got it made. Your spirit will be happy. Your life will go in the right direction. Okay. All right. You just need these things. So here he says, watch again. So this is the first part. He says that you present your body's living sacrifice wholly acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable, rational, it's the rational thing to do. It's not only reasonable. The reason it's reasonable and rational is because if you don't, it's going to go down a different path. It's going to lead to death. This whole world is heading towards death. You know, that's what's so incredible about John 3 16. But God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. There is the eternal life. It begins the moment you gave your life to Christ. It doesn't begin when you drop dead and you go off him to have an eternity. It started the moment you gave your life to Christ. You changed to a different mode. Otherwise, why say that? Why say you're going to have eternal life if you already didn't have it? Why promise that as a condition of receiving Jesus Christ, if it was already yours? Are you getting this? So in receiving Christ, there is an everlasting life that is ministered to you, that you walk in to step in to become, you know, a part of. It's an everlasting kingdom with an everlasting king. Hallelujah. Amen, it's all timeless. And notice he says, not only reasonable, rational, but intelligent. When are we going to realize that? The most, the smartest thing you can do is this. It is the smartest thing you can do. It is when your body will then begin to operate the way God designed it to operate. You know, God can work through you if you let him. If your body is circulating, sacrifice, then he'll work through the thing. But if it's off doing its own thing all the time, and then suddenly it gets into trouble and help me Lord, help me. And he's going, this is what a mess. I'll try. I'll do my best. No, he won't say that. But you know, I'm just being human over this. Okay. Don't read too much into what I just said, but you know what I'm trying to say. Sometimes it gives me very little to work with. See God wants to work through us powerfully, but if we're not used to that presence and we're not used to that, we'll just fall. A lot of people fall out because they're not used to the presence of God. By the way, I thought the spiritual ones fall. That'd be a problem if Jesus kept falling every time he prayed for somebody. He was the most spiritual one. Can I get amen on that? Okay. Never mind. Let's just leave that and move on. Okay. I mean, that's awesome because sometimes God has to knock you out to bless you and to minister to you because our will fights him. Sorry. I have to mention this now, a bit irreverent, but you know, it's funny. I just suddenly had this picture in my mind where this, you know, you have ashes, you know, and this minister was praying for this person and they, you know, they're just resisting and they're just staggering and they're doing this. And the ashes, it's kind of like, and finally said, don't hit them because I don't know where it's going to fall. But you don't hit people. Sometimes God just has to knock you out to minister to you. The ashes shouldn't. Okay. So anyway, all right. Now watch. He goes in to say something. How do we do this? How do we do verse one? Verse two, he says, be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Now there's a lot in that. All right. It says it includes new ideas and new attitudes, but let's go back now a little bit here. He says, don't be conformed to this world. Don't follow its patterns, don't follow what it says should happen. When this happens, this is how you react. When God says, do something else. Somebody looks funny at you, you hit him. God says, love him. When something goes wrong, you don't just throw your hands up in the air and say, well, that tithing doesn't work. You know, I'm just going to have to get this fixed and you're not going to get my mind this way. I'm just being real and honest with you and you don't want to hear this stuff, but I'm just telling you, instead of going, you know what? I'm a tiger. I do whatever God asks me to do. You'll work. And if you don't work, then make sure somebody comes in and does it for free. The amount, let's call favor, the amount of stuff that has happened and God has blessed us with. Some things just last and last forever. Are the things God just looks after? In other ways. You do right by God and God will do right by you. Our whole life is worship before God and it has incredible returns. People always see what they're losing. They never see all the things they can gain. It's very sad. So he says, don't be conformed to this world. Stop thinking like this world. All right? He says, be transformed. Do you know the word transformed? I mentioned this you last week. It's the same word when it says that Jesus on the mountain, he transfigured. It's the same word. It's that metamorphosis. He's saying you need to have, you need to go from being a caterpillar that crawls on the ground to a butterfly that flies in the air. They're two totally different things. Do you know when a little caterpillar comes to the edge of something? That's the end of it. A butterfly goes, who cares? I'll just fly over, I'll just fly across. I can do all things, so Christ has strengthened me. Are you with me? See, suddenly, and you know, the Bible doesn't just say we're about to fly. It says that we are to be eagles who mount up on wings like eagles. Oh, those things are incredible majestic creatures. And they can hunt. I mean, they can carry things off, man. And the way they can, you know, when there's a storm, they can just go right above all the clouds, lock their wings and just hang. Well, the chickens are all getting rained on. They just kind of, yeah, are getting my suntan today. In the worst time, they do the best things. Are you getting this? A thousand may fall at, you know, one side and ten thousand the other, but not you. Not you. What the world says, everybody, not me. But the economy, not me. Are you getting this? Life and death are in the power of your tongue. You decide how you want to live. You decide what's going to happen to you. You want to join everybody else? And then you ask a prayer, you know, no, you know. It's very hard to pray for some people because they just have their eyes on the world. They conform to it and then they want you to pray something miraculous to happen. And it's just like you still got your eyes on everything. I know it's hard, but we need to be careful that we are not conforming to the world, that we are allowing ourselves to be transformed by the renewing of our mind through Scripture, through the Word of God, through the Holy Spirit. It needs to be a transformation. People need to look at you and say that is not the same person. I know I'm not. Oh, it's very bad. Anyway, and we're still getting there. Okay. And he says here, by the renew of your mind, again, which includes new ideas, so you start thinking differently and your attitude changes. Boy, I tell you, we need some of that attitude, needs overhauling. I mean, really, well, brother, I'm, yeah, what about that, you know, on the road the last time? Oh, yeah. Oh, you know, that was just everybody does that. See, conform to the world. I used to. I'll tell you what I used to and what I now do. Okay. Now that I brought that up, people cut me off and do something silly or try to, you know, do something that you'll get you almost killed on the road. Hello. Okay. All right. And I'm ashamed to say this, but my prayer was like, Lord, just take him out. You know, like Peter and James, or James and John, you know, when the windows, Samaritan said, he said, Jesus, just kill him all, go fire down from him, and Jesus is going, are you kidding? We're here to save people when they're trying to kill them all off. You're the wrong spirit, dude, you know, these are apostles, disciples of Christ. We put little circles over their head. Yeah, those guys, sons of thunder, that's what they were called, but, you know, I was like that. I got God on my side, and I was like, God, I'm using for everything. Kill that person. Get rid of them. Bless that person. They're so good. They did the right thing. Don't do stuff like that. I mean, the blessing part is good, but the other stuff, you know. And so one time, you know, the Lord said, I, he goes, stop it. I said, stop what? He says, you've got, I'm going to just say it the way he said it. He said, you have murder in your heart. We don't realize what's going on in there that brings those words out. And he said, stop it. I said, I had the same reaction you did. I said, I didn't realize. He said, I'm seeing your heart. I said, oh. And I said, I need change when I say no, he said, change your heart, and you'll change what you say. And I said, oh, I said, that's going to take a little while. Yeah. Now that you acknowledge, we can now start the journey. And now what I pray when somebody does something like that is I pray that God gives them wisdom and God gives them insight and God helps them to see the error of their ways so that they are not a problem to people on the road or themselves. Because my logic used to be God get rid of them because, you know, they're going to kill somebody else. So better them than you take them up before they take somebody else out. And that's the wrong logic. This is what you pray. This is how you pray. This is how you don't do silly prayers like, oh, Lord, it's okay, just bless them. Because stupid Christians pray stupid prayers. He didn't, he said, don't just pray blessing over them because then you're asking me to go against my will, my word, my judgments and the law. He said, you need for them to change. Pray that. If they weren't doing that, they'll be okay. I said, yes, smart, isn't it, okay, whatever it takes for that to happen. Anyway, I'm sorry for using the word story, okay, I'm sorry, okay, Proverbs talks about that a lot, okay. And sometimes we can't just sugarcoat things. Somebody told me, I won't point those people out. All right, so, watch now, watch. He says that you'll be transformed by the renew of your mind. You are transformed when you do this. And he says that you might prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. I like the, one of the translations to acceptable it says pleasing so that you have your good and your pleasing and your perfect. We all want to be in the perfect, don't we? But you know there's levels. You can start at the good. Let's just start at good, shall we? Some areas that's huge. Other areas you're making progress, you're getting into is acceptable and perhaps perfect. We'll hallelujah and you want to be and live there, amen? It's going to take verse one, you all thought I'd forgot about verse one, didn't you? No, it relates back to you need to present your bodies as a living sacrifice. You need to keep this thing together and have the whole thing going in the same direction. And then you'll be in God's perfect will. You're getting this? And it's precisely at this time when we are renewed in our mind and our thinking and standing in the presence and the power of God that James promises in the letter half of verse seven when he says he, the devil will flee from you. He has to because now you're standing firm, you are using the word of God. You have no divided heart, you have, and we're going to talk about that next, all right? We are, you are in a place where you are submitting to God and resisting him. Remember something I said before, I want to just bring this to your remembrance. Remember Douglas J. Moose had placing ourselves under God's authority means negatively that we firmly refuse to bow to the devil's authority. Did you get that? We firmly refuse to bow to the devil's authority. No matter how much your body wants to refuse, resist, do something. Okay. One of my professors said, do you even put up a fight? I mean anything. He also says this, whatever I've got to finish here, whatever power Satan may have, the Christian can be absolutely certain, listen, that he or she has been given the ability to overcome that power. That is a powerful statement. Whatever power the devil has, people have different ideas about what that is. Whatever power the devil has, please get this, I really love this. We can be absolutely certain, I want to leave this with you. You can be absolutely certain, no ifs, no ands, no buts, and anybody preaches anything other than this, resist it, okay? You can be absolutely certain that you have been given the ability to overcome that power. Will you use it? You have the ability, just know that. Jesus said in Luke 10 and 18 and 19, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven, behold I give you the authority to trample on serpents, scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by enemies hurt you. Amen? Let's have a read about it right close. Father, we thank you today for your word and we just thank you, Father. Thank you, Lord, for what we are learning. Thank you, Father, for what we are growing in, that we do grow in these things, that we go from strength to strength, faith to faith, and glory to glory. And thank you, Father, as I said before, that we are not just heroes, but doers of the word. As we do, Father, that we are blessed in this, that you can confirm your word with signs following. We thank you for that, in Jesus' name, amen. [Music] [BLANK_AUDIO]