Fan or Follower, Part 3

As needed as you go out today. They're there on the left side. There's some bags there you can grab it with and use it.

But it does take preparation. It does take cooking them yourself and doing all that. So just kind of a heads up on that. They're not in cans. And my understanding is there's some frosting in there. Only one container, though.

So, you know, I'm just saying, there is. I don't need it in my house. I already started on the first container. So, um... It's true. It's sad, but it's true. The last time that Shannon and I were here, the last fifth Sabbath that we had, we examined this idea that there exists a continuum upon which we find ourselves as Christians.

And from a standpoint of traditional Christianity goes out in the world, but again, one of those situations where when we look at it, the reality of it is we have to be very careful that this sort of thing doesn't creep into the churches of God as well in this continuum, finding ourselves. On one end of that continuum, we find the fan.

And that was somebody that we defined as an individual that may be reluctant to make the full commitment to the way of life that Christ has called them to lead. They may stand on the sidelines. They may cheer, ra-ra-shish-gumba. But on the other end of that continuum, we see somebody who would consider themselves to be a follower, or somebody who we would consider to be a follower.

And that's somebody who truly lives the life that they have been called to lead. They truly live the life they profess to believe in. They follow implicitly the instructions of their teacher. We also looked at this idea that despite where we find ourselves on this continuum, wherever we find ourselves, whether we're down towards the end of a fan or whether we're up towards the end of a follower, wherever we happen to place that X, that our God expects that we grow.

We don't get to stay in that spot and say, oh, this is where I am. This is where I'm always going to be. God expects growth. He expects positive yardage, whether we, again, find ourselves on the 10-yard line, the 60-yard line. The goal here is that we move the ball forward. And when we broke it down in the last message that I gave here, the actions that gave us the gains that we needed were to leave our past where it belongs, in the past, to move forward, not let ourselves be encumbered by that old man and instead go boldly as a new creation in Christ.

We get positive gains by being real with ourselves, unmasking, taking off the masks that we might wear, not being hypocritical, saying one thing and doing another. Instead, we have to make sure we put our money where our mouth is spiritually. Lastly, we discussed the importance of being unified with God. We did establish the idea that spiritual unity is important. It's important to be unified with God. And it comes down to how well that we know Him and how we demonstrate our love for Him through obedience to His law.

But we also saw that it comes down to how well He knows us. It comes down to how well He knows us. And the condition of our relationship, as we saw near the end of the parable of the wise virgins. We saw there were five unwise virgins that didn't prepare properly. They hadn't done what they were supposed to be doing during the time frame. They weren't ready, were unprepared 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 in Matthew 7 the opposite side of that coin. People who were certain that their actions alone would be enough. They had cast out demons, they'd prophesied, they'd done all these 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. Same four words to both groups of people. God desires a relationship with His people to know them and to be known by them.

At the beginning, the people of Israel were intended to be those people. They were supposed to desire that relationship in return. But we know from a cursory reading of the Old Testament that's not quite 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. Foreign gods, foreign women, God wasn't good enough. They wanted to see other people.

The book of Jeremiah describes God's thoughts on this. Let's go to Jeremiah 3. We'll go ahead and start there for today. Jeremiah 3, and we'll pick it up in Jeremiah 3, verse 1. Jeremiah 3, verse 1, we see God's words through the prophet Jeremiah. Under a heading in my Bible of Israel is shameless. It says, Notice God's words here. Yet return to me.

Verse 6. The Lord said also to me 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. And I said after she had done all these things, Return to me, but she did not return. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it. Then I saw that for all the causes for which backsliding Israel has committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a certificate of divorce. Yet her treacherous sister Judah didn't fear, but went and played the harlot also. Verse 9. So it came to pass through her casual harlotry that she defiled the land and committed adultery with stones and with trees, which we know represents in this case idols and other gods. And yet for all of this, her treacherous sister Judah has not turned to me with her whole heart, but with pretense, says the Lord. Then the Lord said to me, backsliding Israel has shown herself more righteous than treacherous Judah. In fact, we see here that Israel's unfaithfulness was so bad that God likens it to the actions of a repeatedly unfaithful wife. This is not a single indiscretion. This is not a one-time thing.

It is a repeated and purposeful unfaithfulness.

Upon every high mountain, under every green tree, he repeatedly refers to Israel and Judah here as harlots. And this theme winds itself through parts of the book of Jeremiah and through the entirety of the book of Hosea.

And yet we see in the next couple of verses of Jeremiah the incredible faithfulness and love that God has for his people. Again in verse 11. Then the Lord said to me, backsliding Israel has shown herself more righteous than treacherous Judah. Go and proclaim these words toward 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.

Verse 13. Only acknowledge your iniquity, that you have transgressed against the Lord your God, that you've scattered your charms to alien deities under every green tree, and you have not obeyed my voice.

Says the Lord. God here is telling him, you were not faithful.

You didn't love me. You didn't do it right. We didn't have a solid relationship.

And this theme wound its way through ancient Israel. From the moment they left Egypt, from the moment they left Egypt, Israel started complaining. They started complaining. They did the exact opposite of what God instructed them to do, standing against God. They longed for Egypt. They desired Egypt. They wanted to go back to this life of bondage that God had redeemed them from. They rebelled against God's anointed. They exhibited their lack of faith in God time and time again. You know, and one of those things where, you know, it's easy to put down ancient Israel. It's easy to stand, you know, today with hindsight and look back and say, you know, this, this, and this. But we have to be sure that we understand, too. This applies to us as well.

You know, this applies to us as well. Much of the books of Exodus and Numbers and a lot of the Old Testament reads like a parent telling their kid, no, and the children just doing it anyway. You know, you all have had, a lot of you have had children, you know, you remember the conversation you have with kids of, no, don't touch that, it's hot. Well, one of my kids just will just reach out and touch it. Oh, okay. I mean, many of your kids make me the same way. We have one like that out of three, so I figure we did okay otherwise. But, you know, we, this phenomenon is alive and well today in the modern era of the church. God consistently, through His word, tells us, no, no, this is the way. Walk you in it. And what do we do? You know, many of you that have had kids can relate to this idea of telling your children, no, and the children just doing it anyway. But, you know, we get a lot of van time with our family as we're driving to various places around the state at this point in time. And it gets to the point at times where you just have to, you almost just have to say, look, we're done talking. No more touching, no more talking. We're done. We're done. Everybody just close your mouths, sit there. Medford is four hours away. Just, you know. And sometimes it does happen within the first half hour of leaving the house. But, no, you know, it gets to that point. And we can see that, you know, God got to that point with the ancient Israelites as well. We can actually see that in Numbers 14. Let's go ahead and go there. We'll take a look at when God reaches this point with Israel, when He just basically pulls the car over at the edge of the wilderness of Sinai and says, we're done. This is enough of this. Numbers 14. We'll go ahead and pick it up in verse 26. The context of this particular passage, this is occurring right after the rebellion that the Israelites had against Moses and Aaron, and ultimately against God, right following Joshua and Caleb's spying out of the Promised Land and their report back when all of the other spies fabricated their stories. And they at least gave an accurate report and said, no, no, no, we definitely can take these guys. We've got it. We've got God on our side. We can go in there. This is the, you know, Israel rebels against that. And then this is God's words to Moses and Aaron here in Numbers 14.26.

The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, How long shall I bear with this evil congregation who complain against me? How long should I put up with this? I have heard the complaining against me, or I'm sorry, which the children of Israel make against me. Say to them, verse 28, As long as I live, says the Lord, just as you have spoken in my hearing, so I will do to you. Verse 29, The carcasses of those who have complained against me shall fall in this wilderness. All of you who were numbered, according to your entire number, from age 20 and up, from 20 years old and above, except for Caleb, the son of Jafuna and Joshua, the son of Nun, you shall by no means enter the land which I swore I would make you dwell in. But your little ones, whom you said would be victims, I will bring in, and they shall know the land which you have despised. But as for you, your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness. Your sons shall be shepherds in the wilderness for forty years, and bear the brunt of your infidelity until your carcasses are consumed in the wilderness, according to the number of the days in which you spied out the land forty days, for each day you shall bear your guilt one year, namely forty years, and you shall know my rejection. I the Lord have spoken this, and I will surely do so to all this evil congregation who are gathered together against me. In this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die.

God reached the point where he recognized that current generation was unable to be worked with.

They were so far beyond salvage. They were so far beyond getting it that the method that he chose to utilize was to allow them to die off and then work with the next generation of Israelites who exhibited more faithfulness and trust, or at least had the potential to exhibit more faithfulness and trust. Those of Joshua and Caleb's generation. Think of that for just a second. God allowed the congregation of Israel, his chosen people, to wander in the wilderness for forty years until the last of that generation besides Caleb and Joshua had died. To the point where he had individuals that he would work with.

Those who were faithful, who were willing to listen, who were maybe willing to do it right, who were willing to establish a relationship with him. Those who loved him with all their heart, their soul, and their might, and those who were faithful to him. In other words, those who knew him. In other words, those who knew him. 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 the husband of the bride. He's described as a friend. He's described as a brother. I don't see any references to God as a cousin. I don't see any references to God as a friend of a friend's friend or some acquaintance.

Whenever Christ or God the Father are mentioned in Scripture with relation to their people, it's in a close and intimate relationship of some kind.

God doesn't desire acquaintance with his people. He doesn't desire a casual friendship, a kind of, well, yeah, I know that person, but I don't really know them. He wants a close, intimate, committed relationship where he is our one and only, not our one of many.

In short, he wants to know his people. And that word, no, in Hebrew is the word yada. It's the word yada. Y-A-D-A, actually, is the spelling. But it seems silly to stay the same.

But it's pronounced yada. And it means to know completely or to understand fully. And it's used in a lot of different capacities throughout Psalms. David talks of God being known, talks of God knowing the innermost things. But the word is also used in Genesis 4, verse 1. And it's there in a slightly different context. Let's go ahead and turn there. Genesis 4, verse 1. And we'll go ahead and see this is a passage that has been read at just about every, I actually would say, just all of the church weddings that you may have attended. Genesis 4, or actually, not this one, I'm sorry. I do want 4, verse 1. But it says, And Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, and said, I have acquired a man from the Lord. That word no there is yada.

That word no there is yada. And it is the kind of intimate and thorough knowledge that occurs within a marriage relationship. That's the type of fervency with which God desires to know us. And likewise, that we should desire to know him, like we know our husband, or like we know our wife.

You know, he advises his son in 1 Chronicles 28. Let's turn over to 1 Chronicles 28.

He advises Solomon here in the process of setting him up to be king. 1 Chronicles 28, verse 9. He advises him here that knowing God, again the word yada, knowing God is essential. 1 Chronicles 28 and verse 9. 1 Chronicles 28, verse 9 says, As for you, my son Solomon, know the God of your father, yada, know the God of your father, and serve him with a loyal heart and with a willing mind. For the Lord searches all hearts and understands all the intent of the thoughts.

If you seek him, he will be found by you. But if you forsake him, he will cast you off forever. He tells Solomon that knowing God, drawing near to God, is crucial. Let's go over to Psalm 73. We'll see some additional thoughts of King David on this topic. Psalm 73. I'm trying to transpose numbers today. I apologize. My eyes are reading them one way and I'm trying to say them another.

Psalm 73. We'll pick it up in verse 25.

Psalm 73 and verse 25. Again, some of King David's thoughts on this topic. Additional thoughts.

Psalm 73.25 says, Whom I in heaven, or whom have I in heaven but you? There is none upon earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart fail, 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 put my trust in the Lord God that I may declare all your works. And when you look at the first part of this passage, verses 25 and 26, 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 fail, but you are the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

So magnificent words. Those are intimate words. He goes on to say that it's good for us to draw near to God, that God is our refuge and because those that are far from God shall perish.

Being near to God 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 that will be lasting? How do we draw closer to God? And that's the topic that we'll be examining today as we draw this series to a close. It turns out the book of James has quite a bit to say about this concept. Let's turn over to the book of James.

There's actually a formula of sorts. I'm a mathematically minded type person. I see formulas in everything. But there's a formula of sorts here that is listed in James 4. Let's go ahead and turn over to James 4.

And we'll go ahead and pick up the account in verse 7. James 4 verse 7.

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. 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 emphasizes our need for submission to God, which if you boil this entire series that we've looked at down, that really is the overall focus of this entire thing.

Submitting ourselves to God and really going all-in in this relationship. Not holding anything back, not keeping a reserve, not stepping back and going, well, not all-in. I'm mostly in, but there's a little bit of me here that's not.

The real focus of this entire series has been going all-in in our spiritual life.

Submitting our life to God. What we can see here that simply submitting our life to God also isn't enough. We have to resist the devil. That word that's used for resist here means to stand up and fight. It's an active word. It's anithistiminion.

Try that again. Antihistamine. I think that's what it says. No, it says, Antihistamine, which I should really learn to pronounce Greek and whatnot. But it's not a passive resistance. It's not a passive resistance. It's not something that we're resisting sort of as we're just, you know, here. It's an active resistance. It's a physical fight daily against the devil's attempts at derailment, against his efforts to try to separate us and to draw us away from God. Drawing near is so important. Why would the devil want us near to God? He doesn't.

He does everything he can to pull us away. He wants to know part of us getting closer to God.

Everything in his power to keep us from getting there. We know 1 Peter 5.8, and you can jot it down. We're not going to turn there. But we know that it tells us Satan walks around like a roaring lion, looking, seeking whom he may devour, trying to find people that he can get a hold of, that he can draw away. And that word devour means to gulp down or swallow whole. This is not something that is a game in any way. It's no prisoners. You know, Satan's playing for keeps. Every person that he can keep away from God is a win. We go on in James 4. We see that in order to draw near to God, to kind of cleave unto him, as we saw last time from Deuteronomy 30, we have to initiate. We have to take the ownership. We have to recognize that if we can't feel God's presence in our life, if God feels distant, it's not on him. It's on us. And it's our responsibility to draw near to him. And according to James here in James 4, if we do, God will draw near to us.

He then gives us four specific things that are necessary for us to draw near to God in order to establish a closer relationship with him. And that's what we'll spend the remainder of our time on today. The first of those things is to cleanse your hands. Cleanse your hands.

The second of those things is to purify your hearts. The third of those things is to be afflicted and mourn. And the last of those things is to humble yourself. To cleanse your hands, purify your hearts, be afflicted and mourn, and humble yourself. And with the time that we do have left today, we're going to examine these in a little bit more detail, looking at four specific things that we can do to strengthen that relationship with God in order to, wherever we find ourselves on this continuum, whether we're back here or whether we're up here, wherever we're at, these four things will help us to move ourselves up that continuum, but help us to strengthen that relationship. The third and final message in this series, for those of you that like titles, is fan or follower strengthening the relationship. Strengthening the relationship. So we'll start by looking at what it takes to cleanse the hands. And there's an old adage that, man, I'm pretty sure that you've heard before in some capacity, and most likely it's when we've gone ahead and decided to open mouth and insert foot in a conversation with mixed company, and typically it involves our wives to some degree. In fact, I would imagine that most of you know it well enough to finish the following sentence. If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop digging. Exactly. Stop digging. This thing's actually attributed to British politician Dennis Healy, and it's referred to as the first law of holes. Believe it or not, there is a second and a third law as well. But it basically means that when we find ourselves in an untenable position, when we find ourselves in a place that is a complete no-win situation, that it's crucial that we recognize the situation and that we change tack. We don't just try to, you know, get ourselves in this hole and go, I know, I'll dig our way out. That never works. The worst thing we could do at that point is continue to dig. And that's the first thing that we have to do when we try to draw closer to God, because a life of sin is an untenable position. A life of sin is an untenable position.

The beginning step is for us to quit digging ourselves further into that hole. We have to cleanse our hands of that sin. God was clear in numerous places in the Old Testament that the things that are holy have no part with the things that are unholy. You know, not too long back we went through, we're doing a chronological reading of the Bible. And it's been about a month, month and a half or so ago, I think, since we were in Leviticus. But the sheer amount of the book of Leviticus that is dedicated to keeping Israel clean from various unclean things, whether it was keeping those that were unclean out of the camp, ensuring cloneness after leprosy, after menstruation, before sacrifice, before atonement, the sheer amount of that book dedicated to keeping Israel clean is astounding. It is a large portion of the book of Leviticus. And the high priest in particular was to remain clean, so much so, this was something I found fascinating, that they weren't even to take care of the bodies of their own mother and father should they perish. The other priests actually had regulations that allowed them in the case of immediate family. But the high priest, not even their mother and father, they were to remain that clean. They were not to become unclean. And while these laws were really smart from a disease standpoint and they were a blessing to Israel, there was major spiritual components in these laws as well. Things that are holy have no part with things that are unholy. They're to be kept separate. They're not to blend.

Holy things are set apart. The Sabbath is holy time. It's holy time. It is time set apart, not by us, but by God. It has no part with things that are unholy, things that are regular, things that are common, which is why we don't do our regular activities on the Sabbath day. Those things that are common, those things that are ordinary, no. The Sabbath is holy. It's holy time. Not by us, but by God. God set it apart. 1 Corinthians 7 tells us that our young people are holy. Our young people are set apart by God. They don't do the same things that their friends do. They don't do the same common things. They are holy. They are set apart by God. And you know when you're 13, 14, that's a tough pill to swallow. When all your friends are doing this and you really want to be, it's hard. It's tough. But God set our children apart. They're not to mix with the world.

Uncleanliness separated Israel from God at that time. Just as continued sin separates us from God today. Let's turn over to Isaiah 59. Go to Isaiah 59. We'll pick it up in verse 1.

Isaiah 59, verse 1.

Isaiah 59, verse 1 says, 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.

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.

You know, it's not that God doesn't have the strength to save. It's not that he can't hear because his ear is heavy. Our sin separates us from him. It causes a chasm. It causes a rift between us and God. And Christ's sacrifice bridged that gap. But continued sin drives a wedge between God and us. What it really tells God is that our sin is more important than Him.

That's what our continued sin tells God. That our continued sin is more important than Him. Consistently tells God that I want to see other people. That I am not maybe fully committed.

To draw near to God, we must draw near to Him. And we can't do that living a life of sin. Now we all know everyone sins. But we have to be ensuring that we are consistently repenting and that we are really striving to draw closer to God. And we've got to stop digging.

We've got to repent. We've got to cleanse our hands. The second thing that is mentioned here is to purify our hearts. And I would imagine everyone in this room at one time or another has been to the dentist. Some of you may, as soon as I say the word dentist, go, you may cringe. You may not have a fantastic relationship with your dentist. But most of you have probably even had a cavity at some point in time in your life. Cavities, as we well know, little science lesson here, come from a bacterial corrosion of tooth enamel. It means the little, as my, our dentist calls them for the boys, it calls them sugar bugs. And those little sugar bugs get in there and they start chewing away at the enamel and they cause pits and holes within the teeth. They thrive in a high sugar environment, particularly if we don't do a great job of keeping up on our daily cleaning practices. But dentistry is pretty amazing. You can go to the dentist, they can make your face all numb, and they can drill a big old hole in your tooth and they can 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 frequently, if you don't brush regularly, the next time you go to the dentist they're just going to find more. They're just going to find more. But this time it'll be in a different tooth because you never fix the problem that caused the symptom in the first place.

Cleansing the hands of sin isn't enough. It takes a change of heart, requires a change of heart. And this was really the problem that God had with ancient Israel. They didn't have the heart. They didn't have the heart at that point in time. Let's go over to Deuteronomy 5. Deuteronomy 5.

God laments the Israelites' level of commitment here. Deuteronomy 5, and we'll pick it up in verse 27. This is after Moses is reminding the Israelites of the events after the initial giving of the Ten Commandments, reminding them of what they said to him and what they told God.

Deuteronomy 5, verse 27. And we'll go ahead and read it through verse 29. Deuteronomy 5, verse 27.

Moses tells him that basically they told him, "'You go near, and hear all the Lord our God may say, and you tell us all that the Lord our God says to you, and we'll hear it, and we'll do it. You take care of it. We'll hear what you say, we'll do it.' Then the Lord heard the voice of your words when you spoke to me, and the Lord said to me, I've heard the voice of the words of this people which they have spoken to you. They are right in all that they have spoken. Oh, that they had such a heart in them that they would fear me and always keep my commandments, that it might be well with them and with their children forever." God knew it wouldn't last. He knew it wouldn't last. Oh, that they had such a heart in them that they would fear me and they would keep my commandments always. You know, Israel as a whole didn't have the Holy Spirit available to them. A very select few were blessed with it. His prophets, some of his kings, the elders, the general population, the general populace didn't receive that gift at that time. Let's go to Jeremiah 32. Jeremiah 32, we'll see that the, that wasn't always to be the case. Jeremiah 32 wasn't always to be the case. Jeremiah 32 verse 40.

Jeremiah 32 verse 40, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from doing them good, but I will put my fear in their hearts, will put my fear in their hearts, so that they will not depart from me. Once the first fruits of the new covenant were blessed with the gift of the Holy Spirit and Acts, you know, this all changed. That heart was now available. But it doesn't mean that we don't potentially slip and fall back into old habits. Even with the Holy Spirit present in our lives, which James had, as he's writing to this audience of people who had, were still in need of purification of our heart, to live our life with a single focus looking to God rather than being double-minded. Matthew 6 verse 24 talks a little bit about the concept of double-mindedness.

Matthew 6 verse 24.

Matthew 6 verse 24. Very well-known scripture.

Matthew 6 verse 24.

It doesn't do me any good to be in verse 20 or in chapter 26.

6 verse 24. No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. And you could replace mammon with just about anything today. Anything that eats the majority of our time.

For some, it's social media. Others may be their jobs, maybe their addictions, their family, their friends, their hobbies. You know, the list goes on. And anything that we elevate on a platform and focus on more than God becomes an idol in our life. And you begin to serve it, whether you're aware of it or not. Christ told his disciples in Luke 14 that unless they love their family less, then 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, where do you suppose social media ranks? Where do you suppose our job ranks? Where do our hobbies rank?

Not very high. Not very high. In the context of this passage in James, the address is just that. It's the same issue that Israel struggled with. It's a spiritual adultery. Let's go back to James 4. Let's go back to James 4. And in James 4, we're going to pick it up just in front of the section that we looked at earlier in verse 7. We're going to pick it up instead in verse 4. And we're going to look at the context with which the words in James that we read earlier was given. So James 4 and verse 4. James 4 verse 4. And we'll see. There is a context here of spiritual adultery. James 4 verse 4 puts it right out there. Adulters and adulteresses, 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. Friendship with the world is enmity towards God. Here it's defined as spiritual adultery. As we move into verse 7, it tells us, submit therefore. That's a connected phrase. That's because of these things. Do these things. Submit yourself. Resist the devil. Draw near to God. And that really is the essence of kind of this definition of a fan, as we've looked at in this series. They know it up here. They've got it up here. Biblically, they know it. They've been taught this way for however many years. They know what needs to be done. They have this high degree of biblical head knowledge. But for whatever reason, they have enough of a friendship with the world to not necessarily make a full commitment to living the life that they know to be true. They're friends with the world. It's actually kind of a humorous story told in the book, Not a Fan. It's on pages 35 and 36. I'm going to read it to you here real quick because it kind of gets to the core of what we're talking about here. Page 35 and 36 of Not a Fan. It says, at the church where I'm a pastor, and we talked about this, he is a pastor of a Sunday-keeping church down in Tennessee somewhere, down in the South, 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. It begs for some kind of an explanation, so I decided to call the person. I checked the name of the person and I got the phone number. I wanted to confirm that it wasn't my wife. That would have been awkward. I was riding in my car and I called him on my cell phone. Now, I would suggest, if you're going to make this kind of call from your personal phone, first go to settings on your phone, then show my caller ID and turn that to off. Do not attempt while driving. When he answered, I simply said, hey, this is Kyle Idelman. 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. 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. Yeah, that's kind of like my job description.

But do you hear what he was saying? He was saying, I believe in Jesus. 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. I'll even slap a 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, brethren, that's the same exact thing that God is trying to do with us, to get us to come out of the world. Messages should interfere with your life. They should. The things that you hear should cause you to examine your life. And especially at this time of the year, when we're examining our lives and we're looking in when we get, we're moving up into the Passover season, trying to figure out where are the branches in our life that don't bear fruit and cutting them, pruning them off and casting them in the fire. How do we get those out of there? This time of year, that is exactly what we need to be doing. Finding those things that prevent us from having this kind of relationship with God. Whatever those things may be, for everybody, it's different. You never know, no two people are dealing with the same issues. Everybody's different. But that's what God is trying to do in us. He's trying to get us to draw nearer to Him, to strengthen that relationship. But in order to do that, we have to cleanse our hands, we have to stop digging, and we have to purify our heart. We have to do both. Just cleansing our hands is not enough. We've got to have a change of heart. We've got to make sure that we've got that. The third thing that James is saying is, we've got to make sure that James gives us this to be afflicted and to mourn. And we see that the audience here in James' epistle, we see them, they're a group of individuals very much like we saw the Church of Laodicea in the last message. They seem to kind of think they're maybe a little better off than they really are.

We see them exhorting them in verse 9. Be afflicted and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to heaviness. Gil Gil's commentary says the following, it says, be afflicted, mourn and weep. Not in a bare external way. You know, not by afflicting the body with fastings and scourgings, renting the garment, clothing with sackcloth. In other words, doing it to be seen. Doing it to be something where, you know, oh, look at that person. Oh, they must be so miserable. They've afflicted themselves so greatly. Not externally, but internally. Afflicting ourselves at the core. An inward mourning and an inward weeping over the plague of the heart, the impurity of nature and the various sins of life.

They go on to say, let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to heaviness. Meaning, carnal joy on account of their friendship with the world. Their enjoyment of the things of it, since they consume them on their lusts and which betrayed enmity to God. Now, the reality of it is we're in the world, we're to be in the world, but not of the world. I mean, there's discernment involved in all of this. But the scattered tribes that James wrote to were exhorted to recognize the trouble they were in. To realize where they were at. To afflict themselves to the core, not just outwardly, not fleetingly, not temporarily, but to be afflicted to their innermost parts.

To recognize the magnitude of their sins. To mourn and weep over their friendship with the world in that subsequent spiritual adultery. Putting other things before God. James desired that their laughter turn to mourning, their joy to heaviness. That really, they would be convicted of their sins and repent. Turn to God. Draw towards Him so that He would then draw nearer to them.

And I don't know about you guys. You know, when I read this section of James' epistle, he might as well have just put a, hey, Ben, at the top of this section. He might have, big old red letters, hey, Ben, read this. Highlight James 4. And, you know, I struggle to find time in my life for a regular study in prayer. You know, it seems to me like there's not enough hours in the day, but I know that's not it. I know that's not it. There's 24 hours in a day.

How am I using those hours? What is my priority? If my priorities are out of balance, my life will be out of balance. Physically, mentally, spiritually, we, you know, I've worked hard to gain control over this area of my life, and I'm still working at it. I'm by no means there yet. But it requires me to be cognizant of the time that I spend on tasks. It requires me to not allow myself to be externally distracted. And I have to ensure that I am redeeming the time that I do have. And the good news is we can always make course corrections. You know, when we see something in our life that doesn't work, we see something that is bearing fruit that doesn't really do us any good, we can always make course corrections. We can always prune that tree. We can always prune those branches. And it's painful. Pruning is painful. I mean, we don't hear the tree scream when we lock the branches off. But you know, it's a rough process. Pruning. You know, we had a neighbor that pruned a tree of ours a few years back. He used to want to start cutting stuff off. But he knew what he was doing. We just let him do it. Because he knew what he was doing. We didn't know what we were doing. But you know, you look at it and you go, he's left us with a stump of attorney. But sure enough, this year, we've got new shoots. It looks great, you know, and it was one of those things where that pruning is absolutely crucial. As individuals that truly seek God and desire to follow Him, we have to analyze our lives. We have to find the areas that are out of balance. And we have to fix them to be in line with what God desires. We cannot be a committed follower of God if our lives are not under control. And if we're not in obedience to what God has instructed us, that obedience is so crucial. That is how we show our love for God. That is how we show our love for God. Paul illustrated this principle really well in 1 Corinthians. Let's go ahead and turn over there. 1 Corinthians 9. 1 Corinthians 9. We'll go ahead and pick it up in verse 25.

1 Corinthians 9, verse 25. This kind of stuff has been a lot on my mind lately. I've got a race coming up next weekend, next Sunday. Got some, going to actually go run. I paid to run. I don't know what's wrong with me. But started kind of getting into running and started doing some of that. So this stuff has been on my mind a little bit lately. And this passage, I think, is really part and parcel of this whole little bit. So 1 Corinthians 9, verse 25. We'll go ahead and read through verse 27. And I'm picking it up on 9 25 for a reason. I know I'm missing the one big passage that we normally read. We'll get there. So 9, verse 25. 1 Corinthians 9, sorry, verse 25. And everyone who competes for the prize, speaking of the games, is temperate in all things, disciplined in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but weave for an imperishable crown. Therefore I run thus, not with uncertainty, not shakily, not unsteadily, not with uncertainty. Thus I fight not as one who beats the air, shadow boxes, but I discipline my body and I bring it into subjection, lest when I preach to others, I myself should become disqualified. Now, brethren, if we're not training, if we're not disciplining ourselves and exercising self-control in our lives, you know, these athletes are doing that to ensure that they obtain a prize.

And if we're not training in our spiritual life, you know, if we're not praying like we should, if we're not studying like we should, if we're not fasting, if we're not meditating on God's Word, in other words, if we're not living what we've been taught, brethren, that's on us.

And it falls on us to fix it. We have to afflict ourselves to the core. We have to recognize that, you know, not outwardly, not fleetingly, but really identify those areas in our life that need correction, that need cleaning up, that need fixing, and we have to take action in those areas of our life if we're going to draw nearer to God. Lastly, the very last thing that we have to do is we have to humble ourselves. We have to humble ourselves. And the word humble here in the passage in James is the Greek word tepineo, which means to humiliate to abase or to bring low. And the reality of it is that humility is the antithesis to self. They are on one end of the continuum and as far on the other end of the continuum as you can get. Okay? Humility to self. And the final thing that James is telling these scattered tribes is that they must abase themselves before God. Really, erase the self from the equation. Remove their pride, remove their own desires, and instead submit themselves to the will of God in their life. In other words, quit arguing with God. Quit struggling and surrender. The self is a pesky thing.

It keeps popping up and looking at what God has asked us to do and goes, I don't want to do that. I want to do this. And if we give the self too much control, we find ourselves going our own way. We find it contrary from the direction that God desires us to go. You know, back some time ago, before God really drug me kicking and screaming back into the fold. Self was king. Self was king. 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 all me. I was in charge of my destiny. The problem with that was I was a fool. And when there's a fool directing your steps, you have a problem. You have a big problem. I had no idea what I was doing, where I was going. I was just living in the moment. No real forethought, no focus. And thankfully, God was watching over me and kept me out of real serious harm. He did let me get beat up a little bit, but he protected my life.

I resisted every attempt in Spokane, where I grew up, to become involved in my congregation.

I was asked to do opening prayers. I would ask to do this. I was asked. And I resisted every attempt.

They kept asking, even as I turned it down at every turn. Eventually, I moved, thinking the problem was solved. But the attempt was picked right back up in my new congregation. I don't know if I'd actually... I don't think I've told you guys. Maybe I have. I remember I used to have folks ask me to do opening prayer when I first moved here to Salem. And I kind of had figured out at that point... I wasn't super interested. I didn't really want to. I really, to be perfectly honest, had no interest in being up front whatsoever. I was perfectly content being in the congregation, coming to church, doing my thing. Very fan-like of me. But I figured out really quickly that you had to have a jacket to give opening prayer. So I figured out there was a pattern here, and that you had to have a jacket in order to give the opening prayer. So I would purposefully wear a shirt and a tie with no jacket, so that if someone were to ask me to give the opening prayer, I could say, oh, I don't have my jacket. And then they would go on to the next victim, so to speak. But I remember not too long after I moved here to Salem, you guys all know John Penrod. John had the opening... the hymns for that service. And he must have figured out my system, because he'd asked me a couple of times before, oh, yeah, I don't have a jacket. So he asked me at one point in time before services, and I told him, I don't have a jacket. Next thing I know, he came back with a jacket. He borrowed one. I think it was John Jackson's, actually. Borrowed one, tossed it to me, and said, you're up. You know, many of the lessons that God taught me in those earlier years had to be blunt. They had to be blunt, because I was fighting so hard. Blunt tactics work. They work remarkably well. They work remarkably well. Let's go over to Acts 26. We'll see a relating of a story here of Paul on the road to Damascus. I'm not equating myself with Paul. Please don't misread my words here, but I am illustrating that blunt tactics work. They work very, very well. Acts 26, we'll pick it up in verse 12. We see Paul recounting his story here to King Agrippa. 26, verse 12. Paul says, While thus occupied, as I journeyed to Damascus with authority and commission from the chief priests, at midday, O king, along the road, I saw light from heaven brighter than the sun, shining around me and those who journeyed with me. And when we all had fallen to the ground, I heard a voice speaking to me and saying in the Hebrew language, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.

So I said, Who are you, Lord? He said, I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But rise and stand on your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to make you a minister and a witness both of the things which you have seen and of the things which I will yet reveal to you. I will deliver you from the Jewish people as well as from the Gentiles to whom I now send you, to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in me. It took blunt tactics to get Paul. It took blunt tactics. And I can attest to you, it is hard to kick against the goads. If you're goading an animal along, a goad's a pointed stick, basically. It's a sharpened stick. You kind of just jab at it when you want the animal's attention. It keeps them moving in a general direction where you want them to go. You know, for animals like sheep, things like that, you don't really need a goad. They kind of go along fairly easily and they do what they want to do.

But animals that tend to be a little bit more rebellious, goads come in really, really handy. Quick jab to the ribs and sure enough, they're right back doing what they're supposed to be doing. You go along peaceably, no problem. But if you kick against the goads, you might get a little bit more of a reminder as you bring that goad in there and you're kicking it away, trying to get it away from you. You might get a little more of a reminder. In my own life, ironically, I found the more that I fought, the farther down the road I ended up. I finally stopped fighting. I finally stopped fighting. I can remember this moment as clear as day. I told God, do what you will. I'm done fighting. I'm done fighting. Whatever you want me to do. I told him right then and there, my policy is, from now on, if you ask me to do something, my answer is yes. I'm just not going to fight anymore.

And, you know, opening prayer, okay, sermonette, sure. You have a sermon? Really? Okay. But I finally surrendered and just told God in prayer, do with me what you will. And I still need the occasional reminder. Old habits die hard. They really do. You know, thankfully God's good enough to provide me with that goat in the ribs when I need it. And why do I tell you that? Where am I going with all of this? We've all been called to be part of God's ecclesia. We've all been called out. We're all here because God has personally invited each one of us. Individually, he has said, you, I want you, your mind. Brethren, don't struggle. Don't fight it. Realistically, whether we understand it or not, God looked down on us and said, that one, that one right there, that's the one I want.

We have been personally selected by the creator of the universe to have a personal relationship with him. What an incredible blessing that is. As we've seen in this series, that personal relationship that we've been called to have comes with some strings attached. We're required to act on what we've been taught. We're required to not just think it's a good idea, not just understand from a head knowledge standpoint, yeah, that sounds great, but we've actually been told by God to get out of the classroom and put it into practice each day in our lives. Truly live it. We have to surrender our lives. We have to put God first. We have to walk in his ways, pray with renewed focus, study with renewed zeal, take the hits that Satan keeps dishing out and keep charging forward for every inch of spiritual growth that we can get. We have to move that ball forward until our very last dying breath. God doesn't desire fans. He wants truly committed followers, and therein lies the irony of the book, not a fan. Therein lies the irony of the book, not a fan. Here is someone who has gone through and who has read their Bible, who is very studied, very learned, yet they keep church on Sunday. They keep Christmas. They don't keep the Holy Days. And he is claiming to have the heart of a follower. Obedience to God, obeying what God has given us to obey, is absolutely crucial.

That is how we show our love for God. That is how we surrender our lives to God.

God doesn't desire fans. He wants truly committed followers. He wants people who will live the way of life that he has called us to live, to be lights to the world around us, showing them that even in this darkened world and this ever-darkening world, the last two weeks have been, frankly, scary.

They really have. Things are escalating, it seems, very rapidly. But in this darkened world, in this world that's firmly entrenched in Satan's influence, us living this way of life shows that world that God's way works. It shows them that God's way works.

And that's not a calling that we can take lightly. People will form their opinions of our great God based on our actions, based on our words, and based on the life that we live. We are ambassadors for God. We are showing the world what our God is all about every day that we live our lives.

Let's turn over to 1 Corinthians 9, 24. We'll go to our last passage today. 1 Corinthians 9, verse 24.

This is the one we didn't read earlier. Told you we were coming back to it.

1 Corinthians 9, verse 24. 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 may obtain, that crown.