Fan or Follower, Part 3

The last time that Shannon and I were here, we examined the idea that there exists this continuum. That along this continuum, we find ourselves as Christians. And on one end of the continuum, we have what we would refer to as the fan, and on the other end of the continuum, we have what we would refer to as the follower.

And we defined those two terms. We said that the fan was somebody who was an individual, who maybe was a little bit reluctant, maybe hesitant a little bit, to make that full commitment to the way of life that Christ had called them to lead.

Maybe they'd stand on the side, they'd cheer for them, okay? They'd maybe sideline it, they'd hold up the signs in Ra-Ra-Shishbun-Bah, but on the other end of that continuum, we have somebody who would consider to be a follower, someone who truly lives that way of life that they profess to believe in, and who follows implicitly the instructions of their teacher.

We also looked at the idea that despite where we happen to find ourselves on that continuum, from that fan on one end to a follower on the other, wherever we happen to place our dot as we diagnosed ourselves, we also talked about how God expects that we grow. That God expects that we're going to move that ball forward, whether we get that ball on the 10-yard line or the 60-yard line, we're moving it forward. We're getting growth, positive yardage. When we broke it down last time we were here, the actions that gave us the gains that we needed were to leave our past where it belongs, in our past, not letting ourselves be encumbered by that old man, and going forth boldly as the new creation in Christ.

We also get positive gains by being real with ourselves, by taking off the mask, not being hypocritical, not saying one thing and doing another, but by putting our money where our mouth is spiritually. Lastly, we discussed the importance of being unified with God. We established this idea that spiritual unity is important, and that it comes down to how well we know Him and how we demonstrate our love for Him through our obedience to His law. But we also saw that it comes down to how well He knows us, and the condition of our relationship, as we saw at the end of the final parable that we used last time, the parable of the wise virgins.

We saw that those five unwise virgins didn't prepare properly. They hadn't done what they were supposed to be doing and were thus unprepared for when it was time for the bridegroom to come. They hadn't established a relationship with God up to that point. But then we also saw that in Matthew 7, the other side of that coin, there were people who were certain that their actions alone would be enough. They'd cast out demons.

They'd prophesy. They did many mighty works in His name. But the relationship itself was lacking. And ultimately, the same four words were said to both groups of people, I never knew you. Now, God desires a relationship with His people to know and to be known. And at the beginning, ancient Israel was intended to be those people.

They were supposed to desire that relationship in return. But as we all know, that's not entirely what happened. He was to be their God. They were to be His people. But Israel played the harlot, every opportunity that they got. They were constantly running back to what was comfortable for them. Whether it was foreign gods, foreign women, God wasn't good enough. They wanted to see other people. The book of Jeremiah talks about God's thoughts on this, as God inspired Jeremiah to write these words down. If you turn over to Jeremiah 3, we're going to pick it up to begin with today in Jeremiah 3 and verse 1.

Just get an idea of what God's thoughts are on this process, as He inspired Jeremiah to write these words. Jeremiah 3 verse 1 says, They say, If a man divorces his wife, and she goes from him, becomes another man's, may he return to her again? Would not that land be greatly polluted? But you've played the harlot with many lovers. Now, notice God's words here at the end of verse 1. Yet return to me. Yet return to me, says the Lord. Lift up your eyes to the desolate heights and see. Where have you not lain with men? By the road you've sat for them, like an oravian in the wilderness.

And you've polluted the land with your harlotries and your wickedness, and therefore the blessings have been held back. We see here it says, Therefore the showers have been withheld, and there has been no latter rain. You have a harlot's forehead.

You refuse to be ashamed. Will you not from this time cry to me, My Father, you are the guide of my youth? Will He remain angry forever? Will He keep it to the end? Behold, you have spoken and done evil things as you were able. And He goes on here in Jeremiah, and He likens it as we go into this just a little bit further. We go into... I've got to find my passage here.

Jeremiah 3 verse 6, the next passage. The Lord said to me also in the days of Josiah the king, Have you seen what backsliding Israel has done? She has gone up on every high mountain and under every green tree, and there played the harlot. Israel's unfaithfulness was so bad that God likens it to that of a repeatedly unfaithful spouse. This is not a single indiscretion. This is not a single indiscretion. This is repeated and purposeful unfaithfulness on every high mountain under every green tree, and He repeatedly refers to Israel and Judah as harlots. And this theme winds itself throughout portions of Jeremiah as well as the entire book of Hosea.

We see, though, in verses 11, 12, and 13, that God, His forgiveness and His faithfulness and love that He has for His people, is incredible. Jeremiah 3 verse 11, The Lord said to me, backsliding Israel has shown herself more righteous than treacherous Judah. Go and proclaim these words towards the north and say, Return, backsliding Israel. Says the Lord, I will not cause my anger to fall on you, for I am merciful, says the Lord.

I will not remain angry forever. Only acknowledge your iniquity that you have transgressed against the Lord your God and have scattered your charms to alien deities under every green tree, and you have not obeyed my voice, says the Lord. In other words, you were not faithful. You were not faithful. You didn't love me. You didn't do it right. We don't have a solid relationship.

And this theme wound its way through ancient Israel. From the moment they left Egypt, the Israelites complained. They did the exact opposite of what God instructed them to do, sinning against God. Exact opposite. They continued to long for Egypt. They longed for all the delicacies and all the wonderful things that they found in Egypt. They wanted to go back to this life of bondage that God had redeemed them from. They rebelled against God's anointed, exhibited their lack of faith in God time and time.

Again, in much of the book of Exodus and Numbers reads like a parent telling his children, No, and the children just doing it anyway. Those of you that have had kids, you know, you've remembered the whole day, don't touch that stove. It's hot. And then inevitably, what does one of them do? Touch the stove to find out whether or not it really is hot or not.

And much of Exodus and Numbers reads a lot like that. Don't touch the stove. It's hot. They touch the stove and wonder why they got burned. But lest we kid ourselves and kind of prop ourselves up in this modern era, this phenomenon is alive and well today. Needless to say, we have a lot of opportunities to spend time in our cars as we go between the different congregations that we serve in. And with three kids in the van, there are moments where it gets to the point where we just kind of want to pull the car over and say, Look, we're done.

We're done. No more talking. No more touching. Everybody just keep your hands at your side. Everybody just close your mouth. We are done. We pull the car over. We're done. And so it gets to that point every now and again. And we can see that scripturally, God got to that point with ancient Israel. Let's go to Numbers 14.

Numbers 14 records this event the moment when God pulled the car over at the edge of the wilderness of Sinai. Numbers 14, when he basically tells Israel, No, we're done. We're done. That's enough of this. Numbers 14, we'll pick it up in verse 26.

Numbers 14, verse 26. So this comes right after Caleb and Joshua came back in from spying out the the land of Canaan the first time around. Numbers 14, verse 26.

And above. God reached the point where he recognized that that current generation was unable to be worked with. That the method to get it to that point where he could actually work with people was to allow that generation to die off in their entirety and then work with the next generation of Israelites that exhibited more faithfulness and trust. Those of Joshua and Caleb's generation. Think about that for a second. God allowed the congregation of Israel to wander in the wilderness for 40 years until the last of that generation besides Caleb and Joshua had died, leaving him with individuals that he could work with.

Those who would be faithful or who were willing to listen, may be willing to do it right.

Who were really willing to establish a relationship with him. Those who loved him with their heart, their soul, and their mind, and those who were faithful to him.

In other words, those who knew him knew what he was capable of doing.

And over and over again in Scripture, God is described as a father to his children. He's described as a bridegroom. He's described as a husband of the bride. He's described as a friend, as a brother. I don't see any references to God as a cousin, as a friend of a friend, or as a friend of a friend's friend.

Every time that we see Christ or God the Father mentioned in Scripture in relation to their people, it's in a close and intimate relationship of some kind.

God doesn't desire an acquaintance with his people.

He doesn't want a casual relationship. He wants a close and intimate committed relationship, where he is our one and only, not our one of many.

In short, he wants to know his people. He wants to know his people.

The word know in Hebrew is the word yada, which maybe comes from yada, yada, yada. I'm not entirely sure, but it's the same word, same pronunciation. And it basically means to know completely or to understand fully.

It's used in plenty of capacities throughout Psalms. David talks of God being known, and he talks about God knowing the innermost things. But the word is also used in Genesis 4, verse 1, and we won't turn there for sake of time. But it's used in a slightly different context.

It says that Adam knew his wife Eve, and they bore a son.

It's the kind of intimate and thorough knowledge that occurs within a marriage relationship.

And this is the type of fervency with which God desires to know us.

And likewise, that we should desire to know God, like we would know our husband or our wife.

Let's turn over to Psalm 73, and we'll see King David's thoughts on the subject. Psalm 73. Psalm 73, and we'll pick it up in verse 25.

We'll see a description here that is just pretty incredible.

Psalm 73, in verse 25, says, Whom have I in heaven but you?

And there is none upon earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart fall, or fail, I'm sorry, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. For indeed those who are far from you shall perish.

You have destroyed all those who desert you for harlotry, but it is good for me to draw near to God. I have put my trust in the Lord God that I may declare all your works.

When you look at the first passage of this particular scripture, it reads like a love song.

It reads like a love song. There is none on earth that I desire besides you.

My flesh and my heart fails, but you are the strength of my heart and my portion forever. What magnificent words!

He goes on to say that it's good for us to draw near to God, that God is our refuge.

It's also good to draw near to God because those that are far from God will perish.

So we can see from King David that being near to God in this relationship is an absolute necessity.

So how do we get there?

How do we get there?

How do we work towards establishing a relationship with God that will be intimate and lasting?

How do we draw closer to God?

And that's the topic that we'll examine today as we draw this series to a close. The book of James has quite a bit to say about this concept. Let's turn over to the book of James. Go ahead and put your bookmark in there when you get there, too. We're going to come back to it. James 4.

James 4, and we'll pick it up in verse 7.

James 4, verse 7.

And then go ahead and mark it. We will come back to this after a little while. We're going to be moving around a little bit today.

So James 4 and verse 7. We'll see there's almost a little bit of a formula that's been outlined in this passage that gives us a way that we draw nearer to God and a method for us to draw nearer to God. So we're going to look at James 4, verse 7. We'll read through verse 10.

James 4, verse 7 says, Therefore submit to God, Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.

Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep.

Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.

Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he will lift you up.

The author of the book of James is telling us here that our need for submission to God, which really is, if you boil it all down, that submission to God is what the entire focus of this series has been about, is putting our lives in God's hands, saying, I'm all in. All the poker chips are on the table. I'm yours. Do with me what you will. And that really is what differentiates the difference between somebody who would be classified as a fan and somebody who would be classified as a follower. But it's not just enough for us to submit to God. We have to actively resist the devil. We have to actively resist the devil's advances, because all that sin and all that iniquity puts a wedge between us and God. But if we go on in James 4, we see that in order for us to draw near to God, in order for us to draw near to God, to cleave unto Him, as we mentioned in the last message, we have to initiate. We have to initiate. We have to make sure that we're taking ownership, and we have to recognize that if we feel as though God is distant in our lives, it's not on Him. It's on us. It's our responsibility to draw near to Him. And according to James, in this passage, if we do, God will draw near to us. And so there's a bit of a formula there. There's a bit of a relationship that goes on there. He then gives us four specific things that are necessary for us to draw near to God, in order for us to establish a closer relationship with Him. The first of those things is to cleanse our hands. The second of those things are to purify our hearts. The third is to be afflicted and mourn. And the fourth is to humble ourselves.

And with the time that we have remaining today, I'd like to examine these concepts in more detail, taking a look at specific things that we can do to strengthen our relationship with God, in order to, again, help us move up that continuum, wherever we find ourselves on it. You know, whether we're up here or down here, all of this helps us to move forward. So the title of the third and final message in this series is, Fan or Follower Strengthening the Relationship.

So we'll start by talking about cleansing our hands. And there's an old adage that meant, I'm sure, many of you have heard in some capacity, most likely when we've gone and decided to open mouth and insert foot in conversation with mixed company, often about our wives sometimes. In fact, I'd imagine you know it well enough to be able to finish this sentence, which is, if you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is what? Stop digging. Exactly. This thing is actually attributed to British politician Dennis Healy. It's actually referred to as the first law of holes. Believe it or not, there's a second and third law as well, but that's a whole other message. But it basically means that we find ourselves, when we find ourselves, in this untenable position, in a completely no-win situation. It's crucial that we recognize the situation we find ourselves in and change tack. The worst thing that we could do at that point is continue to dig the hole.

And that's really the first thing that we need to do when we draw closer to God. A life of sin is an untenable position. It is a no-win situation. The beginning step for us is to stop digging ourselves further into that hole. We have to cleanse our hands of that sin. And God was clear in numerous places in the Old Testament that things that are holy have no part with things that are unholy. Not too long back, we have a small group of people that are going through and reading chronologically through the Bible in various ways. And it jumps us around a little bit in different places. But not too long back, we finished up with Leviticus. We went through and read through the the book of Leviticus. And the sheer amount of that book that was dedicated to keeping Israel clean from various unclean things, keeping the unclean people out of the camp for whatever reason, ensuring cleanliness after leprosy, after menstruation, before sacrifice, before atonement, the amount of the volume of that book that was dedicated to keeping Israel clean is astonishing. It really is astonishing how much is there. The high priest in particular was especially to remain clean, so much so that they weren't even to take care of the bodies of their own mother and father should they die. Regulations allowed the other priests to take care of their own family members in the event of a death, but for the high priest, not even their own mother and father. So there were these laws that were in place. And while they were very smart from a disease standpoint, and they were physically a blessing to Israel as well as spiritually, there was a major spiritual component to these laws as well, reminding them that things that are holy have no part with things that are unholy. They're to be kept separate. They're not to blend. You know, you look at all of these other things like not mixing different kinds of fabrics, you know, not going through and unequally yoking oxen. It's the same principle not to mix holy and unholy. Holy things are set apart.

The Sabbath is holy time. It's time that was set apart by God. It has no part with things that are unholy, which is why we don't do our regular activities on the Sabbath day. Things that are common, things that are ordinary. No, the Sabbath is holy. God set it apart. 1 Corinthians 7 tells us that our young people are holy. They're set apart. They don't do the same thing as their friends do. It drove me crazy when I was a teen. But, but, but, but my friends are doing this.

Yeah, but you're set apart. You're different. And that's hard, but they're holy. They're set apart.

Uncleanliness at that time separated ancient Israel from God, just as continued sin separates us from God today. Let's go to Isaiah 59. Isaiah 59.

Just as sin separated ancient Israel from God at that time, it does the same to us today. Isaiah 59. And we'll pick it up in verse 1. Just read verse 1 through verse 3. Isaiah 59 verse 1, Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save, nor his ear heavy that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he will not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood, your fingers with iniquity, your lips have spoken lies, your tongue has muttered perversity. It is not that God doesn't have the strength to save. It's not that he can't hear because the zeroes heavy. Our sin has put a wedge between us and God. It's created this rift, this chasm between us. It's separated us. Now Christ's sacrifice bridged that gap. It bridged that gap for us. But continued sin drives a wedge further and further between us and separates us, again and again. To draw near to God, we must draw near to Him. And we can't do that if we're living a life of sin. We have to stop digging. We have to continuously repent and cleanse our hands.

The second thing that James exhorts the people in his letter to do is to purify our hearts. So to purify our hearts. And I would imagine that everyone in this room at one time or another has been to the dentist. Most of you probably at least have a cavity at least some point in your life.

And cavities come from this bacterial corrosion of tooth enamel. My son's dentist calls them sugar bugs. That's the way she gets the kids to recognize the link between the two. But they do really, really well in a high sugar environment, which is our western diet. It was a very high sugar diet.

But also if we don't do a great job of keeping up on our daily cleaning practices, we can have those sorts of things pop up as well. But dentistry is pretty amazing. They can put you in the chair, they can make your face all numb, they can drill a big old hole in your tooth, and fill that cavity.

But if you don't address the problem of why you got the cavity in the first place, if you don't reduce the amount of sugar in your diet, if you don't floss more regularly, brush more regularly, the next time you go to the dentist they're just going to find more. This time may be in a different tooth because you never fixed the problem that caused the symptom in the first place.

The cavity isn't the problem, it's a symptom. The problem was what led to the cavity developing.

So cleansing the hands of sin isn't enough. Sin is the symptom. The problem is something greater.

It requires a change of heart. It requires a change of heart. And that was the problem. If you boil it down to it, that was the problem that God had with ancient Israel. Let's turn over to Deuteronomy 5. Deuteronomy 5. That heart just simply wasn't there. Deuteronomy 5. God really laments the Israelites' level of commitment here. Deuteronomy 5, 27, we'll pick the story up after Moses reminds the Israelites of the events after the Ten Commandments were given. Deuteronomy 5 and verse 27. Deuteronomy 5, 27, he says, This is the words that they gave him the last time.

Verse 29.

You know, ancient Israel as a whole didn't have the Holy Spirit as a whole.

Oh, that they would have such a heart in them, God said. That they would fear him, that they would keep the commandments. And there were a select few of them that were blessed with the Holy Spirit. You know, his prophets had it, some of the kings had it, elders had it. But the general populace at that time didn't receive this particular gift. It's the in Jeremiah 32, though, that that's going to change. Jeremiah 32. Jeremiah 32 and verse 40.

We see that God's plan entails for a change of heart. It entails for a change of heart.

Jeremiah 32 and verse 40. Jeremiah 32.40 says, Once the firstfruits of the new covenant were blessed with the gift of the Holy Spirit and acts, this all changed. But it doesn't mean that we can't slip back into old habits. Even with the Holy Spirit present in our lives, you know, James had the Holy Spirit as he's writing to these people, the audience that he's writing with had it in their lives. But we're all still in need of purification of our hearts to live our life with a single focus looking to God rather than being double-minded.

Matthew 6 verse 24 has a bit to say about the concept of being double-minded. Matthew 6 and verse 24.

Matthew 6 verse 24. Matthew 6 and 24.

And you could replace mammon with just about anything today. It doesn't have to be a love for money or an avariciousness. Anything that eats the majority of our time. You know, for some, social media for others is jobs, is addictions, it's family, it's friends, it's hobbies. The list goes on. Anything that you put on a pedestal and elevate above the time that you spend with God becomes an idol and you begin to serve it. And Christ told his disciples in Luke 14 that unless they love their families less than they love him, that they couldn't be his disciple. Think of it in this way. If Christ himself laid down the concept of loving everyone in your family less by comparison than you love him, what do you suppose social media ranks? What do you suppose your job ranks?

Your hobbies? I mean, not very high on that list. And the context of the passage in James addresses just this. And this is the same issue that Israel struggled with. It's a spiritual adultery. We'll go back to James 4 where we kept our bookmark. James 4. Only this time we're going to pick it up in verse 4 of James 4. And this is the three passages that lead into the first one that we read today, James 4.7, which was the whole idea of drawing near to God and submitting and all of those pieces. James 4, verse 4, says, "'Adulters and adultresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, the Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously, but He gives more grace? Therefore, He says, God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.'" And then we get into James 4, verse 7, which is where we started.

The friendship with the world is enmity towards God, and it's defined right here as spiritual adultery. He calls them adulterers and adultresses. As we move into verse 7, it tells us, submit therefore. That's a connected phrase, that because of these three things that we just saw here in these three passages, because of these things, do this. Submit yourself. Resist the devil. Draw towards God. And that really was kind of the essence of the definition of a fan as we've defined it so far. You know, they may know it up here. They may know what needs to be done. They may know. They may have a very high degree of biblical head knowledge, but maybe they haven't made that commitment to living that life that they know to be true. They're friends with the world.

They're not willing to give up that friendship. For whatever reason, there's something still holding them there. There's a funny story, actually, in this book, not a fan, told by Kyle Eitelman. I'd like to take just a second to read it to you. It's just on page 35. It's page 35 and 36. It says, at the church where I'm a pastor, someone sent an email asking to be removed from the church membership. The stated reason for leaving read as follows, I don't like Kyle's sermons. That's all it said. That's all it said. That begs for some kind of an explanation, so I decided to call the person. I checked the name of the person and got the phone number. I wanted to confirm that it wasn't my wife. That would have been awkward. I was driving in my car and I called him on my cell phone. I would suggest, when you're making this type of call from your personal phone, first go to settings on your phone, then show my caller ID, and then turn to off. Also, do not attempt while driving. When he answered, I simply said, hey, this is Kyle Eitelman. I understand you're leaving the church because you don't like my sermons. There was a brief silence.

I caught him off guard, just as I'd planned. It was awkward for a moment, and then he started talking, rambling, really, trying to express what he meant. Somewhere in the middle of his lengthy explanation, he said something. And what he said was not meant to be encouraging, but his words caused me to breathe such a sigh of relief that tears came to my eyes. I pulled over to the side of the road, I grabbed a pen, and I wrote down what he said. Well, whenever I listen to one of the messages, I feel like you're trying to interfere with my life. His response? Yeah, that's kind of my job description. But do you hear what he was saying? He's saying, I believe in Christ. I'm a big fan, but don't ask me to follow. I don't mind coming to church on the weekends. I'll pray before meals. You know, I'll even put one of those little Jesus fish on my bumper, but I don't want Christ to interfere with my life. When Jesus defines the relationship that he wants with us, he makes it clear that being a fan who believes without making any real commitment to follow isn't an option. And that's really exactly what God is trying to do with us. He's trying to get us to come out of the world. You know, these days picture that as we're coming into this Passover season and into this spring holiday season, these days picture coming out of Egypt, coming out of the world away from that bondage. And God's trying to get us to look into our lives and to identify the aspects in our life that are separating us from him. That chasm. What is the cause of that chasm and that rift? What branches need pruning? What parts of this tree needs to be snipped off and burned in the fire? That's what God's trying to get us to do at this time of the year. Not just taking care of the symptoms, not just taking care of the resulting things, but going to the core of the issue and finding what is the overall problem. Whatever that problem may be.

And that's what God is doing in us. Because in order for us to draw nearer to God, to strengthen that relationship, we have to cleanse our hands. But we also have to purify our hearts. It takes us a two-step process. Okay, we've got to go through and do that. But James goes on and tells us there's more to it than just that. We also have to be afflicted and mourn. And we see the audience here in James the pistol as a group of individuals that, much like the church of Laodicea, seemed to think they were a little bit better off than they probably were. And we see him exhorting them in verse 9 of James 4. Verse 9 of James 4 says, lament and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Gil's commentary says the following about be afflicted, mourn and weep. It says, not in a bare external way, not by afflicting the body with fastings and scourgings, by renting of garments and clothing with sackcloth, putting ashes on the head and other such outward methods of humiliation. But afflicting at the core is meant an inward mourning and an inward weeping over the plague of the heart, the impurity of nature, the various sins of life, because contrary to a God of infinite love and grace in an evangelical way looking to Christ and being affected with the pardoning grace and love of God in Christ.

We also go on to say the following about let your laughter be turned to mourning, meaning that their carnal joy on account of their friendship with the world and their enjoyment of the things of it, since they consumed them on their lusts and which betrayed enmity to God. The scattered tribes that James wrote to were exhorted to recognize the trouble that they were in, to afflict themselves to the core, not just outwardly, not just in an outward show to other people as they walk by, going, oh look at this guy, he's so afflicted. No, at the core, that they truly were afflicted and mourning over the sin that separated them from God, recognizing the magnitude of that sin, mourning and weeping over their friendship with the world and that subsequent spiritual adultery. James desired that their laughter turned to mourning, their joy to heaviness, that they would be convicted of those sins and repent, turning to God. That was the goal here, was to get them to turn to God as a result, drawing near to Him so He would draw near to them. And I don't know about you guys, but this part of this particular epistle, I sometimes, this should have had a hey-ben at the top of it.

This should have had a hey-ben at the top of it. Like, hey, read this.

I, you know, I struggle finding the time for regular study and prayer. It seems like there's not enough hours in the day, but when it's not it, there are plenty of hours in the day. There really are plenty of hours in the day. There's 24 of them, but the problem is the priority. The problem is the priority. My priorities are out of balance. Life is out of balance. Physically, mentally, spiritually, it's out of balance. And as I've worked to regain control over this, and gain control over this, you know, we still work at it all the time. But it requires me to be cognizant of the time that I have to complete tasks, requires me to be cognizant of the time that I am redeeming, you know, what I'm using that time for, and also preventing external distractions. I'm very distractible. Very, very distractible. So, you know, I sit down to do a task and say, what am I doing over here? Oh, what about when you're done? None of it got done. But it feels like I've done 15 things, even though none of them got done. And the good news is that we can't always make course corrections. We can. God works with us. He gives us time. He gives us kind of time to figure it all out. But as individuals who truly seek God and desire to follow Him, we have to analyze our lives and find the areas of our life that are out of balance, and get them in line with what God desires of us. We can't be a committed follower of God of our lives. Aren't under control. We do not have, you know, control over the time that we're spending, and what we're redeeming, and how we're redeeming them. We've got problems.

Peter really illustrated this principle well in 1 Corinthians. Let's pop over there real quick.

1 Corinthians 9.

Did I say Peter? I meant Paul. Sorry. That other one that started with a P. But 1 Corinthians 9. We'll start there. We'll pick it up in verse 25. 1 Corinthians 9.25.

9.25. 10.25 is not what I'm looking for. 9.25. There we go. So 1 Corinthians 9 verse 25, it says, And everyone who competes for the prize, he's talking about the games here, is temperate in all things, disciplined in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. In other words, these athletes are training themselves. They're disciplining themselves. They're exercising self-control in all these aspects of their lives in order to attain a corruptible prize, a corruptible crown in this case. But they're making sure that the time that they spend is going to get them to the point where they can attain this prize. Verse 26, back in chapter 10 again, Therefore I run thus, not with uncertainty, thus I fight, not as one who beats the air, but I discipline my body and I bring it into subjection, lest when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified. If we're not training in our spiritual life, if we're not praying like we should, if we're not studying like we should, not fasting, not meditating, if we're not living what we've been taught, brethren, that's on us, and it falls on us to fix it. Falls on us to fix it. We have to afflict ourselves to the core, not outwardly, not fleetingly, but truly identify the areas in our life that need correction and take action in those areas if we're going to draw near to God. The last thing that James mentions is humbling ourselves and the importance of humbling ourselves. And the word humble here in the passage in James is the Greek word tapaneo, which means to humiliate to a base or to bring low.

And humility is the antithesis of self. It's the complete opposite end, east-west, man. We're talking self-humility. And the final thing that James tells the scattered tribes is they've got to abase themselves before God. They have to erase self from the equation, remove their pride in their desires, and instead submit themselves to the will of God in their life. In other words, quit arguing, stop struggling, and surrender. Stop struggling and surrender. And the self is a pesky thing. It just keeps popping up and it just continuously looks at what God asks us to do, and the self says, well, I don't want to do that. I don't want to do that. I want to do this. And if we give that self too much control, we find ourselves going our own way, contrary from the direction that God wants us to go. And, you know, back when I was a bit younger, before God kind of drug me, kicking and screaming back into the fold, self was really king. It really was. I did whatever I felt like doing. It didn't matter what my parents wanted me to do. It didn't matter what my friends wanted me to do. I didn't listen to advice. I didn't listen to wisdom. It was me. I was in charge of my destiny. And the problem is, when you have that sort of an attitude, the problem I had was, I was a fool. And when you have a fool directing your steps, you have a very big problem. And thankfully, I had no idea, you know, I really had no idea what I was doing or where I was going. I was just kind of living in the moment. No real forethought or focus. And thankfully, God was watching out for me.

Truthfully. He let me get beat up a little bit, but He protected my life. You know, I grew up in the Spokane area. I resisted nearly every attempt to get me involved in my congregation. Every time they asked me to do something, I said, no, that's not something I'm interested in doing. But God seemed to have other plans. They kept asking, even though I turned it down at every turn. Eventually, I moved. I figured if I left, it wouldn't be an issue. I'd go another area. No one asked me to do anything there. I moved to Salem. And as soon as I showed up in Salem, the attempts continued in the new congregation. And I don't remember if I've told this story here or not. I may have, so I apologize if you've heard this before. But I remember I used to have folks ask me to do opening prayer, but I really wasn't interested in doing opening prayer. I was not interested in doing anything up front. Anything up here. I wanted to be just sitting there, another face in the crowd, just let me do my thing. But I figured this whole formula out. So I figured it out. I was, I would purposefully not wear a jacket to church, because I noticed there was a pattern. Only the guys wearing jackets got asked to go up and give the opening prayer. And so it was like, if I don't wear a jacket, if I just wear my shirt and tie, but don't wear a jacket, I don't do that, then it's not going to be a problem. And that was the pattern at the time. So I remember John Penrod, some of you may know John Penrod from up in the Eugene area. He's living in Eugene now. I was in Salem before. But he must have figured out my system, because he would come up and ask every now and again. I go, oh, jacket! Oh yeah, I don't have my jacket. And every now and again, for a while, I was like, oh, okay, okay. So he comes up and he asked me, and I go, oh, I don't have my jacket today.

So the next thing I know, he comes back with a jacket. He went and borrowed one from a guy about my size. He threw it at me. He said, you're up. And it was one of those things where many of the lessons that I learned in those early years had to be blunt, because I was fighting it really, really hard. And blunt tactics work. You can recount Paul's conversion, taking him down to the ground and saying, why do you persecute me? Why are you kicking against the goats? Why are you kicking against the goats? And I can tell you, it is. It's hard to kick against the goats. It really is. When you're goading an animal along, a goat is this small, pointed stick to get their attention. It kind of keeps them moving in the direction you want them to go when they don't want to go that way. Sheep, you don't really need a goat, but other animals that don't want to go along, you kind of have to jab them a couple of times with the stick to get them to do what you want them to do. You go along peaceably, no problem. You do what you're supposed to do, no problem at all. But if you kick against those goats, you're going to get a bit more of a reminder. And what I found was, at least in my own situation, the more I fought, the farther down the road I ended up.

And I finally just stopped fighting it. I finally stopped fighting it. I remember that moment very clearly where I literally said to God, fine, I'm done. Do with me what you will. I'm done. I'm not going to fight anymore. If I'm asked, I'm going to say yes. And so pretty soon, opening prayer, yeah, okay, sermonette, sure, why not? Sermon? Really? Yeah, okay, why not? And, you know, it was one of those things where I just had to finally stop fighting. I finally had to stop fighting. And I still do need the occasional reminder, old habits do die hard. But thankfully, God's good enough to provide me with the reminders when I need them. But why do I tell you that? Where am I going with this? We've all been called to be part of God's ecclesia. We're here because God has personally invited each one of us, each one of us. God has looked at us and He'd said, you, you, I want you, you're mine. And you know what? We may not understand why. We may not have any idea why. We may look at it and go, really? Me? Come on, you're kidding, right? But whether we understand it or not, God looked down and He said, that one. I want that one. We have been personally selected by the creator of the universe to have a personal relationship with Him.

What an incredible blessing. Brethren, don't struggle. Don't fight it. Don't fight it. We've seen in this series that this personal relationship that we're called to have with our with our Heavenly Father does come with strings attached. We're required to act on what we've been taught.

We're, you know, we have to, we can't just think it's a good idea. We can't just think it's a good idea. We have to actually get out of the classroom, so to speak, and put it into practice each day in our lives. You know, we can't just agree with Matthew 18 generally that it's a good idea for us to deal with our brethren in such a way where we, you know, work through our differences. And then the next time we have a situation pop up like that, throw Matthew 18 out the window and take them down. And we have to operate in a way that that we've been taught. We have to put that teaching into practice in our lives and truly live it. We have to surrender our lives. We have to put God first, walk in His ways, pray with renewed focus, study with a renewed zeal, take the hits that Satan dishes out to us, and keep going. Kind of clawing forward, trying to get every inch of spiritual growth that we can get. Move that ball forward until our last dying breath. We know God doesn't desire fans. He doesn't want people to sit on the sidelines and cheer. He wants truly committed followers. He wants people that will live this wonderful way of life that He's called us to live, to be lights to the world around us. Showing these people that even in a darkened world, and a world that is getting darker by the day, that God's way works. To show them with our life that God's way works. And that's not a calling that we can take lightly. People will form their opinion of our God based on our actions, and our words, and the life that we live.

With great power comes great responsibility. Let's turn over to 1 Corinthians 9, 24. 1 Corinthians 9 verse 24. It might still be there, actually. I don't think we ended up going to Acts. So 1 Corinthians 9 verse 24. We didn't read this one, but we did read the 25, 26, and 27. I saved this one for the end. But we'll look at our final scripture this afternoon. 1 Corinthians 9 verse 24 says, Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize?

Run in such a way that you may obtain it. Brethren, run your race in a way that you will obtain that crown.