Draw Close to God and Resist the Devil

Did we make any progress this year at the feast? Do we understand ourselves better? You know, the feast, I've said, is like recharging our batteries. But if we just recharge our batteries emotionally, then the Feast of Tabernacles was just a vacation. Did we advance towards the Kingdom? You know, we can take the approach that we had a great feast, but if we forget to learn anything from it, then we're really not that clever of a Christian. We can take a more clever approach and use what we just experienced to grow. Some say, well, we had great sermons at the feast, we had a great feast, but they don't do anything with it. The sermons just don't seem to sink in. How can we make sure that we're not that person? The guy who never changes or grows, or the lady who never changes or grows. As we face the future and striving for the Kingdom of God, we all desire to grow spiritually. That's why we're here. And I don't question that when I give a sermon and I ask us the question, you know, are you that guy? Are you that lady? I'm not really questioning your motive for being here. I'm questioning myself, too. Am I that guy who goes and gives sermons but doesn't actually apply it to myself? If I'm doing that, I'm wasting my time. And if you're doing that, you're wasting your time. You could be fulfilling your pleasures right now and not growing. Because if we're not growing, we're not going to be in the Kingdom of God. We want to grow. We all desire to grow spiritually, to mature, to go on to perfection. We want to be in that first resurrection in the family of God forever. That is our daily goal. The fundamental question is, where does our mind live? Where does our mind live? What fundamental approach can we use to overcome? How can we springboard into the feast, from the feast, on into this next year? A lot of people think that the winter is doldrums, and it's not. The winter is time for growth. Between the Feast of Tabernacles and the Spring Holy Days is the longest period of time between Holy Days. It's a gap. And a lot of people think, oh, ho, hum, I'm not looking forward to the coming months. Well, we should. Actually, the coming months is when we actually start to grow. Start to get a new perspective. Start to pick out those major problems that we have that we've never overcome. How do we overcome those problems and actually end up at the Feast of Tabernacles next year a little bit better spiritually, a little bit more mature than we were this year? Well, we need to deal with the major areas in our life. If we do, then the things that we struggle with will disappear. Relying on our own abilities and talents and skills and not completely relying on God with His Spirit and thinking that we can do it will not get the job done. It's our major sins that we need to look out for. Let me be specific. Right? It's not our major work habits. It's not our major hygiene habits, although I encourage you all in that area as well. But it's our major sins that we need to look at. And a lot of you may be puzzled at me saying that. I hope not. I hope that you can see yourself.

Do you have pride, vanity, bitterness? Has someone ticked you off and you just can't get over it? It's you that needs to overcome. When someone tells you you've done something wrong, do you immediately argue it? It's you that needs to overcome. Do the cares of this world, the bills and the need for entertainment and health concerns. Overtake your ability to pray and do Bible study. It's you that needs to overcome.

What about your pet ideas? Your pet doctrines?

Do they consume your time or are you into the Word of God, God's own opinion? Has it ever occurred to you that humans, there are human beings that God does not deal with, will not deal with, can't stand? A lot of people don't think of it in those terms. A lot of people don't think in terms of, there are people that are obnoxious to God's nostrils, can't stand them, won't deal with them. No, surely a loving God would not be that way. Come on. God wants everybody to be saved. Oh, He does. Yes, He does. But His way and only His way. And there are certain people that are just absolutely obnoxious to Him. And He will not deal with us if we are those people. James 4 and 6. Who does God resist? The word resist is a military term. It's a military term. It means to push back, to stay away from, to oppose. James 4 and 6. But He gives more grace. Therefore, He says, God resists the proud.

Those people who are never wrong, those people who know that they're right and other people are wrong, those people who never hear a sermon that applies to them, God resists. Are an obnoxious odor to His nostrils. Wow. Proverbs 16 and verse 5 says, Everyone proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord. And I've said this many times, abomination means makes me want to vomit. Everyone who is proud makes God feel like vomiting.

Have you ever come across a dead animal and had to pick it up with a shovel and pitch it somewhere? I don't know if you lived in the city, you don't ever get to do that. I live in the suburbs. There's a dead rat every once in a while, a dead bird, a dead squirrel. Something, I've got to get out of my yard. And you go to pick that animal up, and if you get a whiff of that decaying body, it gives you that reflux, that impulse to just vomit. And you pitch it over the fence, you get rid of it as quickly as you can. That's how God feels about pride. Sorry to paint such a gruesome picture, but that is exactly what the word abomination means. Pride makes God sick, because he can't work with it. You won't change, you won't grow. And since God didn't make us little robots and doesn't force us down the path, but rather we have to choose to be like him, we have to choose to walk his way, pride kills us, and so he hates it.

Back to Proverbs 16, verse 5. Every proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord. Though they join forces, none will go unpunished. Poetically, it means God will not let this go. This is not something you can just wish away, ignore, and come to it another time. We have to face it now.

Pride thinks that we're above other people. The word literally means on high. We put ourselves above. Above what? Pretty much everything. You know, and if we're Christian, we trick ourselves and we don't frame it in that point of view. Well, of course God is above me. But we don't do what he says, so guess what? No, he's not. Not in your mind. He is. That's the reality. But you don't get that. If you cannot be corrected, if you cannot change, if you can't see yourself, and bow your head low and say, not my will, but your will be done, in anything that we face. Pride thinks it's just me and God, not like other folks. It's an unwillingness to look at how God's word applies to me or applies to you. I could make this sermon and just preach to you. I could do that and not, actually not be in the kingdom of God if I did that. But I first have to actually learn from this research that I do and pray about it, and it has to apply to me. It's not even enough for me to get up here and preach it to you. I will not be in the kingdom of God if that is the case. And you won't either if it doesn't apply to you. The word of God has to apply. Pride is simple agreement with God, and that's not enough. Well, God is right, and I'm right, so I'll hang out with God. We're buddies, me and God. That's pride. The proud can agree that God's right. They don't have a problem with that, if they're in the church. But the word never changes their heart. They don't see the need to look inside. So what can you do? Let's go to 1 Peter 5.

Peter reminds me a lot of John Wayne. Even if you watch the news Bill O'Reilly. This is Peter. 1 Peter 5. Likewise, you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another. Submission requires humility. This is the opposite of pride. Be clothed with humility, for God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. He resists the proud. James said it, and now Peter is saying it. We're going to go back to James quite a bit in this sermon. We're going to be in James 4 quite a bit. So hold your place in James 4. So Peter says also that God resists the proud. Those people who will not yield to their brethren. They will not yield to each other, but they are above.

He resists the proud, which means he is opposed to the proud. And then it says he gives grace to the humble. You know, the proud no longer see the need for mercy. They were forgiven of their sins. They were baptized. They're beyond that now. And they don't need grace anymore. News flash, we all need grace. We all need to be forgiven. As Mr. Stetter said, in the sermonette, we need to repent.

Satan was the very first person to experience pride. Let's look at what pride looks like from its originator. Isaiah 14. You can read about Satan's fall, if you will, Satan's initial sin. A lot of people call the sin in the Garden of Eden the initial sin, or the first sin, or the original sin. That's hogwash. Satan is the originator of sin. Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28.

Explain that. Let's go to Isaiah 14. Let's look at just verses 13 and 14, and look at the definition of pride in action. This is what pride looks like. Look at this from your point of view, from your perspective. Isaiah 14 and verse 13.

For you have said in your heart, I will ascend into heaven. You know, Satan could actually do that, literally. Go to heaven. We can't do that. But we can say something similar, can't we? I will be in the kingdom of God. Well, yeah, that is where we're headed, brethren. But you're not taking yourself there. You're not going there by yourself. Listen to the arrogance of Satan. I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne, above the stars of God, meaning the angels of God.

I will be the top angel. There will be nobody above me. I will rise above all of my brethren. I am better than all of them. That's what Satan is saying here. I will also sit on the Mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north. Pride knows no bounds. It doesn't stop. First, you're going to be the head of your committee, and then you're going to be the head of all the committees, and then you're going to be the pastor, and then you're going to become the president.

It won't stop there. It won't stop there. Pride doesn't stop. Listen to Satan. Listen to what he says. I will sit on the Mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will be like the Most High. Yep, he's going to overthrow God himself, or at least be equal with God.

He had a heart problem. Pride is a heart problem. He wanted to be like the Most High. He wasn't satisfied with the purpose for which he was created. I'm very satisfied with the purpose for which I was created, brethren, and I hope you are too. We were created to become the children of God! That is awesome! What more could you possibly want?

You can't even imagine how good that would be. Pride is so ridiculous. The irony is that God wants to make you like him, like the Most High. But we need him to build an inner. Pride takes it for ourselves.

It's very selfish, and it's very destructive, both to us and to other people. Satan is a very self-destructive individual. We must not be that way. God wants us to be like him. He said so from the outset. In Leviticus 19, verse 2, he said, Be holy for I am holy. He wants you and I to be like him, like the Most High. That is actually our goal. But it's him who's getting us there. It's not us overthrowing other people until we get there.

Pride is a destructive path. The proud do not see their need for help, their need to change. They're already holy in their own eyes. You and I have to resist that kind of pride in ourselves. Look at what pride has done on a human level. It's a fixation with yourself. It's an obsession. I would call it a mental illness. Human beings, human nature is a mental illness. Where we are obsessed with me. Me, myself, and I. It's the opposite of humility. And recognizing our worth as compared to God. Where he is worth all of us combined and then some.

The sin of pride manifests itself in selfish motives. It exaggerates our ego and gives us a lower opinion of other people. And a lack of respect for God and his word. And we do all kinds of crazy sins, and then we get into all kinds of trouble as a natural consequence of our sins. And we're constantly putting out fires.

And so we're dealing with the fires instead of the sin that's causing the fires. So my purpose today is to tell us, hey, brethren, this year, after the Feast of Tabernacles, we need to deal with our sin. You deal with the sin, you put the fire out. You don't start the fire to begin with. Pride leads to other sins against God. For example, robbing God of his glory, his due. Distort your perception of reality. Pride led Cain to slay Abel. Oh, his sacrifice is better than mine?

I don't think so. Pride led Korah to rebel against God and Moses. Pride led Absalom to overthrow David. It wasn't that Absalom was wrong... everything was done right to him and he blew it. No, he was cheated. But look at David. David was also cheated and hunted by Saul. David never raised a hand against King Saul. In fact, killed a guy who claimed that he had slain Saul. And David was more wronged by Saul than Absalom was wronged by David. What was the difference between the two men? Pride. Pride destroyed Absalom and caused a civil war.

Pride leads the sons of Ishmael to continue to fight and launch terror attacks against their brothers, the sons of Isaac, today in our world. This is an abomination to God. It's a stench, like a dead body in your backyard, a dead squirrel or a dead animal that you have to pitch over the fence. It's gross to him, and he resists those people.

You don't want God to oppose you or resist you. We want God's help, his strength, his power. That's why we came to church today. I know we're all tired. We all just got back from the feast. We're tired. I mean, I keep coffee up here just because I like coffee, but today I need it. I'm tired. You're tired. Why did we come here? I know why you came here. You came here because you're committed to God, and you're committed to his way.

Brethren, it's time to get back in the saddle and overcome our sins and stop concentrating on all those little fires we keep lighting and stop lighting the fires.

Let's go back to the book of James. James gives us the formula that always works, and it will help us accelerate our spiritual development this year. So we'll go back to James 4, and let's read verses 6 and 7. James 4, verse 6. But he gives more grace, therefore God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

Therefore, submit to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you. So this is a combination punch. There's two parts to the formula. Submit to God and resist the devil. It's like a boxing move. It's the old one-two. In a relationship with God, the word submit is used in a military way. It means to rank under.

Rank yourself under. God is more important than me. Specifically, God's opinion is more important than mine. If my opinion contradicts God's opinion, I'm going with God. That's submitting to God. It literally means to rank under. It's a verb in the passive voice. Notice this. In the Greek, this is a passive verb. And what does that mean? Well, it suggests that submission is not forced, but rather voluntary. God's not forcing us. You actually have to open your Bible in order for Him to speak to you. He's not shaking you out of bed.

Wake up, Rod! You need to learn my word. I have to open the Bible and read it. Submission here is not forced. It is voluntary. The command here is to willingly and joyfully rank yourself under God. That's what the first punch is of this two-part formula, this combination punch. The first part is to willingly and joyfully rank yourself under God. He's more important than me by my own will. How many of us really want to be opposed to God, resist God? That's not why we're here. God is doing battle, and we want to be on His side. You know why?

Because His aim is perfect. He doesn't miss whom He targets. And we want to be behind Him, not in front of Him, when He fires His shot. We want to be on His side. And verse 8 says, Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. And here is the key for spiritual growth. We must be close to God. When Satan said, I will rise up and be like the Most High, He was doing it on His own.

And that's pride. And we're out there on our own. The key to verse 7 is verse 8. Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. So how do you resist the devil and draw near to God? Let's look at those two things. First of all, how do you resist the devil? What do you have to do to resist the devil? Well, I forgot to put that in my notes, so let me just go there. I'll have to pull out my digital Bible. Let's go to 1 Peter 5. And I'm already there.

And verse 8. 1 Peter 5 and verse 8 and 9. How do we resist the devil? Be sober and alert. So the first thing we do to resist the devil is stay alert. Your enemy the devil, like a roaring lion, is on the prowl looking for someone to devour. Resist him. Strong in your faith, as you know your brothers and sisters throughout the world are enduring the same kinds of suffering. Interesting that Peter brings your congregation, and yes, the whole church worldwide, into the formula of resisting the devil.

We are not alone. We have a congregation for a reason. We have faith. We resist the devil in our mind, but we come together. And coming together helps us. Talking to each other, encouraging each other, scolding each other when it's necessary. We have brethren. Peter brings brethren into the formula of resisting the devil. Stay close to each other. Be unified. Don't skip church. If there's a Bible study, don't skip the Bible study.

If for no other reason than to be with brethren and fellowship with them, you may be too tired to get anything out of the Bible study. Here's a news flash. That's not a sin. You should learn the Bible as much as you can, but you can only take in as much as you can take in. If this is a 40, 45, 50-minute sermon, you're going to zone out in about the 20-minute point, and you're going to start thinking about something else. Because that's all the brain can do on average, is about 20 minutes.

And then you're going to go somewhere else. And I'm still going to be talking, and my voice will drone on in the background. And then you'll tune back in. And then, at some days, we have a Bible study. And you know what? Those Bible studies are generally pretty beneficial. If you can tune in. And if you can't, you still need to be there. Because every day we're resisting the devil, and on the Sabbath, you have an opportunity to fellowship with brethren. Don't just run away. You're missing your strength when you do that. You really are. Resist. A word resist means to actively oppose, to put pressure or power against. Resist the devil.

Let's take a look at two approaches, and discuss how we resist the devil, and draw near to God. To submit to God as your master, to resist your former master, the devil. So there are two commands at work in tandem here. Submit to God and resist the devil. It's like one fluid motion. A lot of you don't like boxing, so pick a dance step. It's one fluid motion. I personally like boxing. It's the old one too. You lead with the left, but you're really going to cack in with the right.

It literally means to stand against the devil. He resists them. He opposes them. Now, God is saying through James that you do the same with the devil. But how? We don't actually... You and I don't actually stand up against the devil and punch him. I mean, we'd lose in a heartbeat. We're physical, frail, temporary beings. He's a spirit being, eternal. How do you... What's he talking about? Resist what? Satan is a tempter. Right? He's a tempter. He's trying to tempt us to walk away from God. What are we supposed to resist? Satan's literal physical attack on us? No. God will protect us from that.

If we weren't protected from that, we'd already be wiped out. No, it's the temptation that he sends to us that we're supposed to resist. The temptation to sin against God. And those big sins that we're in the habit of, and that's what we're talking about today, is overcoming those big sins. Satan feeds those big sins. He tempts us to commit those big sins. James is saying, resist the devil.

He's saying, resist the devil's temptations. This is a matter of spiritual life and death. Resisting the devil is not a trivial matter. And you know what? This sermon is about your private life. Your personal thoughts. This isn't something that you can actually show to your brethren. Because this all happens inside. How did Jesus Christ resist the devil? Well, he was close to God in prayer and Bible study. You'll notice that Jesus Christ, the Logos, the Word of God, didn't just rely on his own words, did he, when he spoke?

Well, I guess you could make an argument that he did, but still. He quoted Scripture, didn't he? Every time he spoke, he quoted the Old Testament, what we would call Old Testament Scriptures, what they called the Law and the Prophets. He didn't just come up with new stuff and start quoting it.

Now, he expanded it. He made it much bigger than what is found in the Law and the Prophets. But he constantly stayed in the Word of God. And he prayed. We have many examples of Jesus himself praying to the Father, staying in close contact with God. Do you remember the Scriptures about when his trial came around and what he did to resist Satan's temptations? What did Satan do when he was tempting Jesus Christ? Did he beat him up?

Jesus Christ fasted for 40 days, and then Satan came and, what did he do? He tempted him. He tempted him to cast away God and follow Satan. And he gave him three temptations. How did Jesus Christ resist those temptations? He quoted the book of Deuteronomy to Satan. The Logos, the Word of God, quoted the Word of God.

What do we do, brethren, to resist Satan? And this is the point I'm getting to. This year, I encourage us to memorize key Scriptures. They were on the tip of Jesus Christ's tongue. When the temptation came, he had the Scripture to resist it. Do you and I? You know what we have? We have our smartphones and our tablets. But if we don't go to them, that temptation passes right by without ever being checked by the Word of God.

We need to memorize key Scriptures. It would be foolish to walk through the savannah of Africa without a gun. But what if you had a gun, the Word of God in this case, and you didn't have any bullets in it? Or you didn't know how to use it? You didn't know how to take the safety off? That's like having a Bible and not knowing what's written in it. You're still walking through the savannah without any protection. Knowing the Scriptures is like having ammunition to fight off the lion's attack. If a lion stalks you, and Satan does stalk us, you need to know how to use the gun. We all have some problem, some deep problem that we're working on.

Every one of us does. So don't feel uncomfortable or like you have to wiggle in your chair a little bit when I say that. It's everybody! We all have something we're working on. And that's where Satan is going to attack us. Do you think he's going to attack you on your stronghold? No! He's going to search out your weakness. And that's where he's going to tempt you. That's where he's going to pull you.

In 1 Peter 5, verses 8 and 9, Satan goes around like a lion. We'll go back there. We just read it. We'll read it again. We'll pick up in verse 10. Be sober and vigilant, your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Is he just going to walk up to the herd and pick out the strongest among us? No. What does a lion do? A lion waits till you get off by yourself and he picks off the little weak one, who wasn't paying attention and wandered off alone. Resist him steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same suffering are experienced by your brotherhood. Peter bringing the congregation into resisting the devil. But may the God of all grace, who's called us to his eternal glory by Christ, after you have suffered a while, perfect, established, strengthen and settle you, rely on God this coming year to overcome your sin. Use the brethren for encouragement, but God is your strength and his word is your ammo.

Let God's word be your direction this coming year. We can never defeat the tempter if we're loners, and animal cut off on the herd has no chance. Don't be a loner this year. If you've been in the habit of being a loner, stop. It doesn't matter whether you're an introvert or an expert or extrovert, don't be a loner. You don't have to carry great conversation. Just don't be alone. Constantly alone. That's where Satan will get you. Hang out with your brethren. There's strength in the herd, in the body of Christ.

It's easy to think that, you know what, if I just ignore this, it'll just go away. Satan will not go away. Satan just sits in the tall grass and waits for us to sort of fall asleep, get comfy, wander off by ourselves, get caught up in the cares of the world, caught up in, oh, I have to go to work just as soon as the sun goes down, caught up with whatever you have to do. And we just get used to being alone. We just get used to walking away from the congregation. That's exactly what Satan wants you to do. He goes after us when we're weak. He goes after us when we're alone. Stay in the faith and stay in the church. You want to resist Satan? Don't do it alone. That's his attack. That's his approach. Satan is a tempter, and the way to conquer temptation is to attack the cause, not the effect or the result. We go after the penalty or the result of the sinner temptation. We sin. What do we try to do? Fix the consequences. What we need to do is fix the sin.

Let me give you a light example. Here's a kindergarten-level example that we can all relate to and won't offend anybody.

How many times have you gone paycheck to paycheck without paying second tithe? I'll catch up. I can catch up. No problem. Then you start feeling guilty. Satan wants that guilt. He wants you to start feeling guilty. He wants to tempt you to not have faith and not pay your second tithe. Actually, it's not a sin to go paycheck to paycheck and not pay tithe and then catch up. It is not a sin to do that. You can read from cover to cover in the Bible, and there is no exact way or time schedule that you're supposed to actually withdraw your tithe. So I'm not going to add to or take away from the Bible, and I'm not going to get pharisaical about your tithing. But it is a matter of faith, and a lack of faith is a sin. And if you're not tithing because you don't have faith and you build this guilt inside you, well, Satan is going to play that. So why not attack the cause instead of the effect?

When you get a paycheck, if you get a regular paycheck and you know how much that paycheck is going to be you can't do this if you're self-employed, but if you're employed and you're paid a salary or an hourly wage and you know what your tithe is, supposed to be every paycheck, most banks will automatically withdraw that for you. All you have to do is in faith set up an automatic withdrawal to be deposited in your savings account of your second tithe every paycheck. Tell the bank when this paycheck comes in, this amount of money goes in there. You've solved the root problem. You, in faith, have made the decision to pay your tithe. Now, you don't have to deal with Satan's temptation every paycheck. Because you dealt with the root cause, not the effect. You're not putting out the fires anymore, and you can move on to something else. Take on all sins that way. Take them at the cause. Do the cause of the problem, not the effect. And then what about drawing near to God? There was two parts to James 4 and 8. One was to draw near to God, and one was to resist the devil. Well, you can resist the devil by not being proud, by submitting to God, by staying close to your brethren, and by attacking your sin at the root cause. How do you draw close to God?

Drawing close to God is not a statement of physical proximity. It's not about coming to church. It's about moving closer in your heart.

In other words, it's about doing what God says in His Word.

It's about thinking about God and meditating on His Word, letting His opinion become your opinion, letting His way of thinking become your way of thinking. And brethren, we all know, most of us know, we should all know, that our way of thinking is not God's way of thinking. If you've had conflict with another person in the past, I don't even have to give it that much time, your thinking is not like God's thinking.

We need to guard our mind. Where does your mind live? We're all influenced by the Internet, images, temptations, the culture, society, society's opinions. Don't judge. Don't say anything's wrong. It's now wrong to say something is wrong, which is actually wrong.

We're all influenced by Satan and the world around us.

So we should take time. What is our life if it does not consist of time? Do you take time to study the Word of God? It takes time! And you know what? We feel like we don't have time.

Especially when this problem happens and this fire comes up and this person calls and these relatives are coming in town. And I don't have time! Brethren, you have the same 24 hours in a day that I do that everybody else does. You have to make the time to learn the Word of God, to talk to God. We'll get to that in just a second. Let your prayer be instantaneous when you wake up in the morning. You know, we all have jobs and we drive cars and we concentrate on what we're doing, but we should pray throughout the day, too.

I'm very groggy in the morning when I first wake up. My prayers are not eloquent at all. I don't know if God laughs at me or, you know, says, whoo, brush your teeth. I don't know what he does. But the very first thing I do when my feet hit the floor is I pray. I'm not even sure I make any sense. I just don't want to start that day and neither should you apart from God. Every day is a two-part punch combination.

Draw close to God and resist the devil. It's every day. Or dance move, if that's your thing.

When my feet hit the ground, I pray. Now, later in the day, my prayers make much more sense.

I encourage us to have our prayers be instantaneous. When we have to make a decision, pray. When we're... before we drive a car, pray.

But don't just let your prayers be these little short, Oh, Father, I'm about to drive the car. Please protect me to my destination. In Jesus Christ's name, Amen.

Make time to actually talk to God. You know what? Here's what's on my mind. Here's where I'm at. Please help me with whatever. Humble ourselves before God. Take the time to actually have a relationship with God. Jesus Christ, who was perfect, not proud, but perfect, and not even needing change. We need to change. He didn't need to change, and He prayed.

It's the first thing I do in the morning. It's the first thing we all should do in the morning. And we should do it throughout the day. And not just these little short one or two line quips, but really pray to God. Start your day off drawing close to God. Ephesians 3, verses 10-14. I'm going to read this from the New Living Translation. Ephesians 3, verse 10. God's purpose in all this was to use the church to display His wisdom in rich variety and all unseen rulers and authorities in heavenly places. Did you hear what that just said? You and I are supposed to be the display of God's wisdom.

We better get to it.

There should be no conflict in the church, no rift in the church. When it's on our part, and the only thing I can control is me, and the only thing you can control is you, we should be very loving and very forgiving and very generous to other people who may or may not agree with us. Verse 11. This was His eternal plan, which He carried out through Christ Jesus our Lord. Because of Christ and our faith in Him, we can now come boldly and confidently into God's presence. Do you ever hesitate to pray?

Never feel like God doesn't want to hear from you.

Never feel like, you know, I've just sinned one too many times, and I made that same mistake. I gave a whole sermon on this not too long ago about how God is faithful even when we're not, because it's what and who He is. We can come boldly into God's presence. And then He says in verse 13, So please don't lose heart because of my trials here. Paul was in prison. He says, Hey, bad thing happens to your leader. Don't worry about it. God's still on His throne. People are temporary. We're born, we grow up, we die. That's all part of God's plan. That doesn't throw us one bit. We continue on. We don't lose heart. Notice Paul's conclusion on the reason why he's in prison. I'm suffering for you. You should feel honored.

When I think of all this, I fall on my knees, and what does he do? And what should we do? Draw close to God. Listen to this point. When I think of all this, I fall on my knees and I pray to the Father. We all have access to God, the all-powerful, the Creator.

And He actually listens to you when you pray to Him. And He loves you. It says in the Psalms, you're the apple of His eye. Isn't that amazing? We should be encouraged by that. So don't feel, oh, I can't go to God today. And make sure you check your pride at the door.

God resists the proud, but He is eager to give grace to the humble. Let's go back to James 4, verses 8 and 9.

Just checking the time.

James 4, verses 8, draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Then He says, cleanse your hands, you sinners. That's the solution. As Mr. Stetter said in the sermon at Repent, cleanse your hands.

Purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament, mourn, and weep. That's just a poetic way of saying, repent of your sins. And what happens? Let your laughter to be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Does God want you to be gloomy? Like Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh? Oh, I'll probably get sick. It's probably going to rain. Probably lose my house. No, no, no, no, no. He's talking about repentance. Not being frivolous through life. Just laughing your way through and ignoring the glaring problems right in front of you. It's not that you don't see them. It's that you won't look at them.

Cleanse your hands. Purify your hearts, you double-minded. From James and Fawcett and Brown, it says, purify the heart. Literally to make chaste of your spiritual adultery. If you go back up to James 4 and verse 4, he calls sin adultery. And that's the context of James 4.

And so this word purify means to make chaste as though you would never sin.

That is worldliness, your heart, the inward source of your impurity. And the word double-minded, also from James and Fawcett and Brown, means divided between God and the world. The double-minded is at fault in heart and the sinner in hand, likewise. It starts in the heart. Oh, it manifests itself in our actions. And that's when we create those fires. What we really need to be doing is not putting one foot with God and in the church on the Sabbath and the other foot in the world. How many times have we heard that and ignored it? And we still have the same fires that we had last year and the year before and the year before that. I remember hearing that when I was a little boy. Don't have one foot in the world and one in the church.

And then I grew up and I understood how important that was. And it became more important to me as an adult than it was as a child. And it should be to all of us. Don't be double-minded. As it says in 2 Corinthians 10 and verse 5, bring every single thought into obedience. Let's go there. 2 Corinthians 10 and verse 5.

Paul's also talking about pride here. Interesting that we started with pride and James talks about it and Peter talks about it. Now Paul talks about it. It's a big issue among us in the church. Pride. And putting ourselves above every other opinion. 2 Corinthians 10 and 5. Casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against what? Your opinion? No. Against the knowledge of God.

And what's Paul talking about? Arguing with other people? He's not talking about arguing with other people. He's talking about arguing with yourself. Listen to this. Casting down arguments and high things that exalt itself against the knowledge of God. Where? In your mind. Bringing every thought into captivity and the obedience to Christ. Yes! We argue with God in our head. Every time we sin, we say, I don't agree with God.

And Paul is saying, bring that thought into captivity. You want to change the outward action? Change the inward man. So resisting Satan and drawing near to God is one fluid motion. Staying close to God is a matter of the heart. Resisting Satan is a matter of the heart. And you do both at the same time. One helps you with the other. Never stand alone. Don't be proud and think that you're something that you're not. That won't get you anywhere.

Put God in his opinion above your own opinion in your heart. And be opposed to Satan's temptations. Because that's where Satan attacks you. If you want to stop having to constantly put out fires in your life, then seek to the root cause of your problem, the sin that you're creating. Go for the cause, not the symptoms.

And in conclusion, we just finished the Feast of Tabernacles.

And if life was a race, it would be more of a marathon than it would be a sprint. And the Feast of Tabernacles is just a checkpoint along the way to get a drink of water. But we still have a race to run. How can we run that race with endurance? By taking what we gain from the Feast of Tabernacles and actually applying it.

Brethren, I implore us to apply it. Don't just say, That was a really good feast! I had a great time. Oh, great messages.

Great fellowship. It was really a sense of unity. Oh, that's true. It's all true. And useless if we don't change.

But if we do take it to heart, they were great messages this year, weren't they? I've heard from people from all different fee sites. I heard the same things. And I'm not making fun of that statement. Great messages. Great fellowship. And a sense of unity. That is what we experienced at the Feast of Tabernacles this year.

Let's make it mean something. We run our race with endurance. By being a humble person that sees that I am a person that needs to change. I am a person that needs to put God's opinion above my own. And I am running this race with endurance. And I'm not going to let Satan snare me with temptations. That's exactly what he does. Let's jump over to Hebrews 12. Hebrews 12, verse 1, Hebrews 12, verse 1, Hebrews 12, verse 1, I'll let it get up there.

Hebrews 12, verse 1.

Therefore, we also, since surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses. Now, this is just following that faith chapter, right? Where Paul is talking about all of those who were delivered or weren't delivered and had faith. And this is that cloud of witnesses that he's referring to. He says, Let us lay aside every weight and sin. That's what we're talking about in the sermon today. Putting off sin this year. And sin, which so easily ensnares us. And let us run the race with endurance. The race which is set before us. The race towards the kingdom of God.

Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.

Who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross.

What can we endure? Anything. When we keep the joy that's ahead of us in front of us. And in sight. Despising the shame, he has set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself. Lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls.

You have not resisted to bloodshed striving against sin. In other words, you're still alive. You still have a race to run.

And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you. My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord. Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by him. Don't let it get you down.

Because something goes wrong in your life. And you have a challenge that you have to overcome. It's actually a blessing. Hey, I don't like him any more than you do. But I do like the outcome. And I wouldn't trade my trials for a million bucks. I would not.

Because they have molded and shaped me. And I know I don't look forward to any more trials. But I know God loves me and I will go through more. And I won't like it any more than you do when I'm going through them.

But I know the outcome.

And you know the outcome of the trials.

So let's stand up if we're sitting down, I mean not literally, I mean in life, and run the race. Verse 6, For whom the Lord loves, he chastens. That word chasten means spank. It means you take a stick and you whack the rear end. And it hurts. But he does it in love. He does it to mold and to shape. And scourges every son whom he receives.

Paul is writing this that we don't become weary. And it's really become, the term become weary is an idiom in Greek. And it means to be tired in spirit. And we can get lethargic and tired and out of the habit of praying and studying and staying close to God, obeying his word and being humble, and resisting the temptations that Satan has. We get tired of doing that. And Paul is saying, hey, keep the end in mind. Keep going, accomplish the goal, don't be discouraged, don't lose motivation. That's what discouragement means. But keep the goal in mind. Discouragement means you've lost the goal. You're not looking at the goal anymore. That's what that word means, discouraged. Losing your eye on the goal.

So let's be encouraged, brethren, to run our race. God is with us. If we'll just skip down in this letter to the next chapter, go to chapter 13 and verse 5. We see, Hebrews 13, verses 5 and 6, that God is on our side. We've read the end. We know we win. This is worth it. Let's run.

Verse 5, Let your conduct be without covetousness. Be content with such things that you have. He himself said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. So we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper. I will not fear what can man do to me. And that is what we can say this year after the Feast of Tabernacles. God is our helper. What can anybody do to us?

Temporarily hurt us? Even take our life. Not even that will stop God. Not even that. We will be completed. Remember the promise that Jesus made? You know, a lot of us don't look at this as a promise. What I'm about to read is so cliché, we forget it's a promise. It's in the Sermon on the Mount, and it's in the middle of the Beatitudes. And it's a promise. Matthew 5.

Matthew 5 and verse 6.

Wait for it to get up there. Matthew 5.6. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. And here's the promise. They shall be filled. You will be spiritually matured. I will grow up one day.

And be spiritually mature.

If I hunger and thirst for righteousness, it's a promise. You will be filled. If God is for us, who can be against us? You will be filled. But will God succeed with you?

Don't ever doubt that. Philippians chapter 1. Philippians chapter 1 and verse 6. Philippians has a lot of encouraging things. None more encouraging than this. Philippians chapter 1 and verse 6.

Being confident of this very thing, He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of the Lord Jesus Christ. You and I will be complete and whole. And God is with us. What we have to do in this coming year, our marching orders are clear. Draw close to God and resist the devil. And we do that by letting go of pride. By letting go of saying, I don't need to change. And applying what we took from the Feast of Tabernacles towards our sin.

Let's focus on our sin, brethren, because God will make us full. He will complete the work in us. He is for us. And there is no one who can stand against us.