Grace Counters Lust

Speaker 1: I'd worked in his life to really give him a ministry now that he's been going around the country painting murals and all kinds of different places, and really interesting to hear how God used the talents that he had to bring this about. And I told him tonight, I said, Brother, Rain, once you're done with the mural downtown, you're free to go. But I don't think our ladies are going to let your wife leave. She's been a huge help at vacation Bible school, and we've been glad to have her here working alongside us and because of their travel schedule, she told me a few weeks ago, she said, I haven't got to work in VBS and so long. I would love to be able to volunteer. And so we worked it out for her to be able to do that and we were glad to have her along. So, brother, can you come and tell us just a little bit about how God has worked in your life?

Speaker 2: Oh, my. It's been a it's been a long journey, we actually. Drove down on Route 66 to paint a mural of Phillips 66 to attend a church that celebrating sixty six years after. But my wife and I, we travel all over the place, but as far as my personal testimony, it started back in a in a VBS in New Mexico. I was born in New Mexico and land far, far away. But we ended up I ended up going to I had a neighbor that kept inviting me to church and I got saved. And there was a revival that night. It was a pastor by the name of Jamie Coleman, and he would travel all over New Mexico and he would do these revivals. And that that's how I got saved the the one night. And and it was just hard charge all the way till then. And from there we moved to Oklahoma and I finished up high school there and went into the Navy and in backslid. And it was a lot of people do and they joined the military. And but anyway, we ended up getting back in church when I went to the the reserves side of the service as I was, I went to work for Columbia Pictures and Walt Disney while I was down in Florida as a staff artist down there. And I dated a gal and she got me back into church and back on the right track. And I've stayed there and. Anyway, so artwork has been a big thing in my life for a long time and church has been a big thing and I've tried to figure out how we can mix these two together. And so our church back home, we have a track ministry and every Saturday morning they do street preaching down on the busiest intersection in Branson, Missouri. And the other members of the who are not out there preaching, they they pass out tracts. And we are just about up to a half a million tracks for a very small church. But my wife and I, we have encouraged churches up in Montana to start a track ministry because, you know, God's word will never return void. And we have left trails of tracks all the way from here to Montana, North Dakota, Seattle, New York. We've we leave tracks everywhere we go. And we recently did a signature sheet. A lot of people, when we're doing murals, they want a souvenir. So I have a signature sheet that I signed for them and hand to them. But it's got the gospel on the back and we put a track with that. And since we've been here in Collinsville, we have I don't know how many we have given out, but we are in an atmosphere with some pretty rough characters, a lot of construction workers and bikers. We didn't know what to expect when we got here. But, you know, when Jesus was sitting among the sinners and teaching them, the Pharisees would ask him, well, now why is he sitting with sinners if he's a righteous man? And Jesus reply was, well, the the sick don't need it, are the healthy, don't need a physician, you know, it's the sick that do. And in this situation, it's the same thing. We are among some pretty rough characters, but it's allowing us to give out tracts and the gospel and and there's one gentleman there that Tricia has a Bible for. So, you know, that's our that's our job to do the great commission and to, uh, put that put out the word. I mean, it's no matter where you travel, what you do, where you work, it's you always have that opportunity. So this is this is what we do. So anyway, there it is in a nutshell, Pastor.

Speaker 1: We were talking in Sunday school this past week about what it takes to have a Christian society, and the gist of it was if you're expecting the preachers and youth pastors of the world to create a Christian society, you're going to be waiting a long time. It takes Christian teachers and Christian artists and Christian accountants and whatever the case may be, Christians at all levels shining their light and getting the gospel out in order for the world to be reached. And so we're grateful for each one of you that aren't in the ministry, but you are in the ministry. And so praise God for all that is done. Let me give you a couple of announcements of some things coming up for you to be aware of, and then we'll have our missionary report tonight. First, Sunday, of course, is a special Sunday. We want to recognize what God has done in our church here over the last sixty six years in not only preserving but prospering the ministry here. And you can go back to the very beginning and see the very small start and then what God has accomplished over that length of time. It's something to celebrate. And on Sunday we're specifically going to be celebrating what God has done over the past year. And of course, last year was the sixty fifth anniversary. And so we want to celebrate some of the things that have been happening and just really make a big deal about all that God has done. And so we'll have our normal morning services followed by lunch and then an abbreviated service in the gym where we will hear from some well, here's some testimonies. We're going to recognize some different people. We're going to sing some songs, and then we will not have a five thirty PM service because of the afternoon service. And so we hope that you'll join us for all of that and stick around for the time of Thanksgiving. And giving praise to the Lord. We have some missionaries coming up soon. Next Wednesday night, we'll have the Jacobs. There are veteran missionaries. And so there they are serving in the country of Pakistan. But they'll be given a report next Wednesday and then the Wednesday after that. We have a new missionary to our church, the kitchen family, and they are going to be involved in military missions. And so we want to get to know them a little bit and lord willing, take them on for support two Wednesday nights from now, June. Twenty third. We also have a final camp meeting after that Wednesday night service. And so we encourage all of our campers and their parents to be there for that meeting as we give some final updates on camp and what to bring a win to meet and all that kind of stuff. So please plan on being there for all of that. Thank you to all of you that have been praying for vacation, Bible school. We had a young man get saved on the first day. We had a young lady get saved on the second day. And then this morning we had six young ladies pray and ask Jesus Christ, be their savior. And so we are thrilled to death for that. We said on Sunday, didn't we, that we were going to pray for God to draw little children to him and that young kids would get saved. And that's exactly what he's doing. And so we are just so excited for what God has done this week and looking forward to what he'll do the last two days. I'm going to ask for the cam to come at this time. And Cameron Younger has our missionary report for us this evening. So welcome. You come and read that.

Speaker 3: All right, so so our missionary for the week is Rex and Jane Harman to the country, Jamaica. So the letter. Praise the Lord. The Jamaican government has eased up on the restrictions for churches a little. We can now meet up to 30 people and are allowed out on the road until two p.m. on Sundays. We have resumed ladies Bible study on Tuesday afternoon and Kids Bible Club on Wednesday as well. Masking and distancing is still required. John and Tammy Cooley have arrived and have been in quarantine in our home for mandatory two weeks. We are thankful for their surrender to Jamaica. Please pray for them as they have a lot to do in order to get settled and begin the Ministry of Church Planting and training workers here. Would you please pray for more laborers for the harvest? We appreciate your prayers for people to be saved, for the gospel to be spread, and for us to be effective in every situation God places. And thank you also for your financial support. Let's pray for these missionaries. Or please, we, with the request listed above in the letter and please continue to bless the Harmatz ministry in Jamaica, Jesus name, we ask these things name in.

Speaker 1: Well, Brother Cam, you made it out just in time, he told me if you went over two minutes that he put one hundred dollars in the offering plate, but he made it underneath that time. So good job. All right. Let's all stand and we're going to sing another song,

Speaker 4: Rejoice in the Lord. Let me get to it. I'm sorry. I was not ready. Great job playing the intro again, here we go all together. God never moves without purpose or plan when trying to serve and molding a man give thanks to the Lord. Oh, your testing seems long.

Unidentified: And darkness in the of.

Speaker 4: Oh, rejoice in the Lord.

Unidentified: He makes no mistake, he knows at the end

Speaker 4: of each path that I take for when I am tried and purified, I shall come forth as God. I could not see through the shadows, and so I looked at the cross of Savior and said, I

Unidentified: power to the will of the master that day that

Speaker 4: peace came

Unidentified: and tears bled away.

Speaker 4: Rejoice in the Lord. He makes no mistake.

Unidentified: Or when I

Speaker 4: am tried and purified, I shall come forth as gold. Now I can see testing comes from above. God strengthens his children, urges and love my father. Trust in his care through Burdine more Frood, I will pay. Rejoice in the Lord. He makes no mistake, he knows at the end of each path that I take for when I am tried and glorified, I shall come forth as God.

Speaker 1: Hey, man, thank you for your good singing tonight. I'd like to ask for Esben, if he doesn't mind, to pray and ask God's blessing on the offering this evening. Ayman, you may be seated. Hey, man, thank you for that, Miss Alicia,

Speaker 4: take your Bibles if you haven't been turned to the book of James. James, chapter number four. Is where we're going to be this evening. The zonk barrel is not in here, I thought we could play some zonk before we got into the message, but I don't see it anywhere. So I guess I guess we're out of luck. I was going to give you some candy if you played along, but well. Some of you are like, what is Zonk? What is he talking about? Hey, you should come to VBS Zonk, is it something else? Let me tell you. All right, James, Chapter four, if you found your place, it's mine. Join me in standing in honor of reading God's word, I will begin reading in verse number one. James Shapton, number four. And we'll begin reading in verse number one. Bible says. From whence come wars and fighting among you? Come, they not hints even of your lusts, that war in your members. You lost and have not you kill and desire to have, cannot obtain. You fight and war. You have not because you ask not. Yes, and received not. Because you ask him is that you may consume it upon your lusts. Adulterers and adulterers is not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God. Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. Do you do you think that the scriptures say it in vain, the spirit that dwelleth in us lusted to in the. He giveth more grace. Wherefore he say? God resisted the proud, but give with grace under the humble. Submit yourselves, therefore, to God, resist the devil. And he will flee from you. Drawn to God, he will draw to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, purify your hearts, you double minded. Be afflicted and mourn, weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning, your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the side of the Lord, he shall lift you up. Speak not evil, one of another brethren, he did speak of evil of his brother and judge with his brother, speak of evil of the law judge at the law. Left out judge the law thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge, there is one lawgiver who is able to save and destroy who art thou, that judge. Just another. Let's pray. We're asking you to help us now as we look into your word. Give me the words you have me to say. You know, the folks that are here to listen to here to their lives, words in Jesus name, I pray. Amen. And you may be seated. All right, we're going to try something out or there has been kind enough on Sunday to purchase a remote for me, and so we're going to try and use this to click through the slides that way if I get behind. Nobody has to wonder why this is because parsers not paying attention, so we're going to try this out. Look at that. It works. Good job, brother, husband. Goodbye. All right. So going through our series on Grace Grace through the Bible, we've learned a lot of things. Grace, I hope you've seen affects. Basically, every part of our Christian life, there's hardly a thing, a topic that we haven't covered when it comes to this matter of grace in the Christians life. But as you can tell from this evening's title tonight, we're going to talk about Grace as it applies to the issue of lust and grace, I believe, from this passage is a counter or counteracting agent to lust now. I'm sorry, I don't have the object lessons like I have been having, but VBS and all, I hope you understand. But I do have the slides and we are going to try and move quickly through this for the sake of all of our VBS workers so that we can go home. And go straight to bed. Amen. Amen. All right. All right, so James begins by accusing the believers that are scattered throughout the world of bad behavior, all of these not all, but a lot of these books that we're reading from the New Testament, Romans, Corinthians, Galatians Effusions, Philippians Colossians, all of those are books that were written to either a single church or a bunch of churches in a single region. But he or James that we're reading here, James, was written to the dispersed Christian Jews that were literally all throughout the known world at that time. So there's not one single church that he has in mind, but rather just the Christians that have been scattered across the world. And he he starts off in verse number one with this phrase, from whence come wars and fighting among you? And it's it's a rhetorical question, basically asking this why are you fighting so much? Why are you fighting so much? Can you see that up there that we need to turn the lights down up here on the platform just so that everybody can see that better? Yes, see, good, see, you see. All right, so much of what we see in the New Testament letters is is written in response to the questions that different apostles were asked Corinthians. We see several times Paul replying to a question that he had received from the church. And a lot of times, most of the time, I'm sorry, we are only privy to a one half of the conversation. It's kind of like trying to listen to somebody talk on the cell phone and you can't hear what the other person is saying, but you're trying to follow the line of thought just by listening to the person that you're sitting next to. Now, it used to be a lot harder to do this, but now everyone's so hard of hearing from all the loud music that we've been listening to that we have to turn our cell phones up so loud that I can hear the other person on the phone almost as clearly as the person that's sitting next to me. Anybody else notice that? Yeah, OK, now it seems that James is responding to the question of why are we having such a hard time getting along with one another? Shouldn't it be that if anyone's going to live in unity and peace, love and harmony, that it's going to be Christians? And you would think, well, yeah, I mean, if anybody should get along, it should be Christians. But here is James and he's saying, hey, why are you fighting so much? Do you want to know why you're fighting so much? Well. Let's think about this for a second, think about the origins of a question like that, you got thousands of Jews that are driven from their homelands because of their affiliation with this carpenter named Jesus. As they are dispersed throughout the world, little cells would begin to form as believers would find one another. It is natural. It is good. In fact, it's the opposite of natural would be unnatural for Christians not to be fellowshipping with one another, but it is natural for Christians to gather together. You back that up in. Run that by again. It is good and natural for Christians to gather together. Oh, God. It begin to to formalize, they would begin to try and replicate the worship that they had enjoyed in Jerusalem, remember, for quite a while. There was only one church, that church in Jerusalem, and it was a big church. And I know if you've noticed this or not, but it's kind of difficult to translate what happens at a big church into a little church. They're not the same. We're talking about some things even today about music and some music was written for big orchestras, large congregations of voices, and some songs were written for one voice. And so there's there's there's differences between large groups and small groups, and so these these Christians are trying to replicate what they've seen in Jerusalem, but they're missing something that the church in Jerusalem had. The apostles. The apostles were still in Jerusalem, and so there wasn't the clear leadership that had existed in Jerusalem, and so without obvious leadership, different ones would try to assert their authority over the group. And as far as you can imagine, if multiple individuals are trying to take the lead, accusations could possibly be made to try and make the other people that want to lead look bad. We call this politics. And politics never make their way into church. Church life, right, ever? Never you never have people that are jockeying for position or trying to gain a following. That would never happen in church life. Except when it does happen. So people start taking sides, fighting starts taking place inside the church body. Hey, we want to follow this guy because he believes this, this and this. And we think that sounds like the best way to do things. And somebody else says, well, yeah, well well, we believe this guy is the right guy to lead. He says this, this and this. And we think this is the right method that we are to employ in reaching this city for Christ. So before you know it, you've got these Christians that should be getting along together. They should be relying on one another for support as they are displaced, but instead they are fighting. And so James responds to this by pointing out where the source of fighting comes from. And what does he say in verse number one? What is the culprit? Or yeah, who what what is the culprit here? Lust, lust is responsible lust wars within their members, according to version number one, you say, what does he mean by their members? Is he talking about the individual members of these little churches that are starting to know what he's talking about here is the the members of each person's body, that there is a war going on within yourself, between your members that is lusting against one another. And so wars and fighting originate with lust if you've got a problem with somebody in the church. Biblically speaking, you could probably boil it down to a problem of lust. You got a problem with your spouse? I know it sounds weird. But you can probably boil it down to an issue of lust. You got a problem with your kids, kids can't get along with one another. This is an easy one. It's probably lust he got what I wanted. She has what I want. They got to do this and I wanted to do that. It's lust. So this leads James to give a rather detailed description of how lost. Destroys, is lost, is very dangerous, it's dangerous to an individual, it's dangerous to a family, it's dangerous to a church. And if you'll follow along with me, you'll see starting in verse number two, that lust cannot fulfill our desires. Lust cannot give us what we think it can. He says, you lust and have not. You kill and desire to have and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you have not because she asked, not you ask and receive, not because you ask him that you may consume it upon your lust. He says, you kill and you have not your desire and fight and war, and you cannot obtain it, so you can never obtain through lust what only comes from God. You can never obtain through lust what only God can supply. Now, this is one of those points in the message. Where you should be grateful. That I am a very disciplined person. Because my notes tell me to move on. But my flesh says, park it there, a preacher. I mean, we're under the tent. Should we not pretend we're in those old tent revival days? And just start naming them. Naming the different vices that people turn to to try and fulfill their lusts, and yet the more they will try to feed their lust, the more. Lusty they are. People turn to this and this and this and this, trying to find fulfillment, trying to find purpose, trying to find happiness, trying to find entertainment, trying to find relationships, trying to find just anything that the human body wants. And all the time they're looking for these things in places where God never intended them to find them. They want community. And so a Christian will turn to anything other than the church for community. One of my little boys that I had in my class today. We were going around in only a couple of them in my class go to our church. So I was asking them where they went to church. This young man told me we don't go to church because I'm on a baseball team. On a baseball team and I play baseball every Sunday. We'll look for fullfillment and. So many different places, and some of you were sitting there and you're so self righteous, you're like, oh, my goodness. How dare their parents? And yet, how many times do you look for fulfillment in something that God would not have you find fulfillment in? The implication here is that. We should be going to God rather than lusting after the things of the world. We go back to this issue of leadership in a community of faith, which seems to be part of the issue here, you realize you don't you don't rightfully become a leader in the church by fighting for it. Let's settled thing if you have to tell people to respect you, you've already lost their respect. I mean, if you have to demand respect, you probably don't have it. You think you're a leader, but you turn around and nobody's following you, you're not a leader, you're just out on a walk. All right, I mean, you don't you don't get the things that you are lusting after by fighting for them, God is the only one that we should be turning to for fullfillment. Lust stifles the Christian life. You look very grim at three. Imagine this, let's say you do go to God for this thing you desire. You do go to God. Hoping that he'll give you this thing that you want, but the Bible says if you ask God for something so that you can consume it on your lusts, then you ask Miss. And God is not going to be responsible for feeding our lusts. Your parents may have fed your lusts. Your friends may feed your society, may feed your lust, but God will never be guilty of feeding your lust. This is a very clichéd illustration, but let's just say you want a million dollars, you want a million, not you won a million dollars, you want a million dollars. So you start praying. Lord. Would you please bless me? With a million dollars and all of a sudden here they're Kneeland by your bed or wherever it is you pray, God appears to you. Now, first, you'd probably die. But you'd be with God anyway, so then you'd be right back. But anyway, let's just say somehow you are able to speak to Jesus, that you can't speak to Jesus. Blessed Jesus physically appeared before you. And you can have a conversation. All right. So, Lord, this is amazing. I just asked you something, I was just praying to you, Jesus. Yes, I know. I heard you. You did. Now you're starting to get excited. I mean, he heard me. Can you imagine that she's this very rare? Well, I was just asking yeah, I know, I know what you're asking for. Well. Can I? Are you? I'm going to give it to me. Jesus, Oddbins. What do you want a million dollars for? Oh, and you start to be real spiritual, you know. Jesus, if you would give me a million dollars, I promise you I will, Thai's off of that. All of a sudden, your pastor appears. From nowhere, he just shows up. And he starts saying, Lord, please give him the million dollars. And then it goes away, it is on just as. Really, you tied off of that? Oh, yes, I would, yes, 10 percent rate back to you. She says, look, I don't I don't need your money. Ah, the more you don't die than what I've already given you, so why would I trust you with that? What do you really want that million dollars for? You know. It's my kids. It's my kids, I mean, I just want to make sure that my kids can have the best education they can. Really, you're you're going to blame this on your children? Oh, my wife, my wife, my wife just she she's got she's got taste like this and our budget is like this. It's just if I had a million dollars, my wife would be happy and and we just have a much better marriage and we could honor you with our very good marriage. You can't honor me with the marriage you have now. I mean, you got this little, you know. Tell me, why do you want the million dollars? OK, here it is. I really want to live. In a mansion. I'd really like to drive. Albergotti. I've got a Porsche. All right, I'd settle for a Chevy pickup truck. You know, that's not true, because if I get the money, I'm buying the F1 50, not the Chevy. So no offense to you people. Listen, God is not going to be responsible for feeding our lust, and sometimes we pray and ask God for things because of our lust and God says, I'm not going to do that. I will not be responsible for feeding your lust, not lust is not only a stifling agent. Lust is also a wedge. Verse number five says, Do you think that the scriptures say it's in vain? That the spirit of dwelleth in US lost its luster to envy. Give us more Grace, wherefore you say, if God resisted the proud, but give it grace under the humble. Now, maybe when I said lust is a wedge, I thought, oh, yeah, drives a wedge between Christians, that's the whole problem. They're fighting, they're warring with each other, but it's worse than that. Lust drives a wedge between you and God. Lust drives a wedge between you and God, it does separate us from friends and spiritual siblings, but it also separates us from God. Lust is what leads a man or a woman to cheat on their spouse. But lust is also what leads a Christian to cheat on God with the world. If a man cheats on his wife because he was lusting after another woman, what is he really saying? That his wife? You're not enough for me. You don't fulfill me the way I thought you would. You're not attractive enough for me anymore. You don't do the things that I expect you to do. And so I'm going to go find somebody that will. Well, you take all of those statements and we think that's that's really that's really gross, right? Right. They're all true in our relationship to God when we go lusting after what the world offers as opposed to what God offers, we're saying the same things to him. God, you're not attractive enough to me. I'm going to go over here, this looks more attractive. And when we get a sight of God on his throne, there'll be no doubt what's the most attractive thing you've ever seen? It's God. He is the most beautiful being ever. God, you're not enough for me. You know, I was in vacation Bible school, and they told me that if I would just get saved, that that that that Your Grace would be sufficient. But you're not. You're not enough for me, you don't fulfill me like I thought you would want to go look for somebody else. We cheat on God. You don't do the things I thought you would do. You don't give me what I thought you would give me. It's lust. Lust drives a wedge between the Christian and God. We are in an exclusive relationship with Jesus. Wouldn't you know it? Is jealous of our affection and loyalty. Jesus wants to be our ultimate fulfillment. Does. You know, there's two kinds of love. There's two kinds of love, there is friendship, love. And there is romantic love. Friendship, love, romantic love. My wife and I, we have romantic love. It is a close, intimate, exclusive relationship between me and her. That's what that's what God intended when he created humans, men and women, but then there's friendship, love. Friendship, love is also close. How many of you are thankful for your close friends? How many of you are are so close you have an intimate relationship with your close friends, you can tell this friend anything, right? You trust them 100 percent. You know, the difference between friendship, love and romantic love is friendship, love is not exclusive. It's not exclusive. You and I can be friends and you and I can be friends and you and I can be friends, and as long as we don't betray each other's trust, I can have lots of friends. We love each other, we may even be physical with each other, you say, oh, what's. You ever heard of a bro hug? I mean, haven't you seen guys, when they're together, if you stop and think about it, they can be more touchy than the girls are. When we go to camp, I'll take pictures and show you all of our guys when they're there ready to leave, you know, and they're going up to their cameras, see then. Thanks, other than doing their silly little handshakes, you know. You can have lots of friends. But I'm in an exclusive relationship with her. Isn't that why maybe you think God relates our relationship to him as the relationship between the husband and wife? It's exclusive. He's not interested in sharing us with anyone else. But lost causes us to cheat on God. When we turn to the world for fullfillment. Fulfillment of needs that he wants to fill. We act as his enemy. When a married man has an affair, does that help or hurt his family? Well, certainly hurts. At that moment, is he acting as a friend to his children or as a faux? So. The same is true for the lust fueled infidelity of God's children, lust is a horrible affliction. And the bad news is lust is a natural condition of man. Great, or naturally, Westville people. That's good news, Brother Gary. I'm glad I came to church tonight for you to tell me that he. And we just that's just the way we are. Why do you think when Adam and Eve are there in the garden with every need supplied, everyone at their fingertips, everything is perfect. Satan says, hey. And some fruit. You know that one thing you're not allowed to do this, this this is what you're missing out on. And even though they had everything lust for what they didn't have lust for, the one thing God had withheld from them. Caused them to send. OK, well, I guess there's no hope, let's go home because we're all just a bunch of lost causes, not so fast. The good news is that God's grace is sufficient. Even for our lost, somebody is going through a hard time when we say, hey, brother, brother. God's grace is sufficient for the. You know, I mean, they're hurting cancer, sickness, car accident. God's grace is sufficient. But you everything with the fact that God's grace is sufficient for our sin. What people say. Or send it around. What Grace did much more about. Are you full of lust? Yeah, you're a human being, I'd say you probably are. God's grace is sufficient for your lust. I don't know what it is you lust after, it's probably not the same thing as the person sitting next to you. But God knows who you are. God knows your weakness. God knows the things that trips you up. And so God says you, my child, I have grace sufficient for you. The grace that we need to overcome lust in our lives can only come from God. It is not going to come because you decide when to pull myself up by my own bootstraps. I really don't like that I do this thing. And so I'm going to really buckle down and make sure I get it out of my life. If you're going to get the victory over your lust, it's going to be because of God's grace at work in your life. Does it give it more grace, wherefore you say it, God resisted the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Hmm. Jim, I really think that you can go to the world for help in overcoming lust. You think the world's going to help you get over your last. Whatever your advice is that you lust after the world's not interested in helping you overcome it. The funniest thing. Not the saddest thing. Have you noticed that so many of those quit smoking commercials are sponsored by Philip Morris? The kids fill Phillip. I know Fill-Up. The people selling you the tobacco are trying to help you quit the tobacco. Seriously? You know, the global advertising industry is valued at over one point two trillion dollars. And they're making a lot of money peddling lust to you. But God stands ready to help them, as you saw in the verse. It does require one thing. Requires humility. This is great. I'm so glad that God requires humility and not something else. Because you know what humility is. OK, do you know what pride is? Pride says, give that to me, I can handle this. I can do this, I know, I know the right way, let me handle this, I can do it myself. Melody says. I can't do this. I cannot do this myself. I don't know the right way. God, I need help. Pride picks it up, humility sets it down, the pride says I can. Melody says, I can't. God resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble grace to trust him, that his way is better. Nothing is always better, his way is perfect. Everyone thinks their way is better. I know God says this, oh, if I could have you talked about a million dollars, if I can have one hundred dollars for every person that tried to tell me, I know the Bible says put. Now, that kind of hurt that. Grace to trust him, that that he he loves you more than anybody else loves you, he knows what's best for you better than anybody else knows what's best for you, that he's watching out for you, that what if you'll follow his will, it'll be better for you, more fulfilling and purpose filled than anyone else. Grace to be content with his way, not the world's way, the grace to say no to lust. You see, God's grace is the antidote. To lust. With God's grace in play, every believer can experience major life change. See? With God's grace working in our lives, we can all of a sudden begin to see things happen that we never thought would happen. Maybe you never consciously thought, you know, I'll never do that. That's too hard, but there's probably some people watching your life that thought this will never happen. This sin in their life will never be overcome. But when this person humbles themself and allows God's grace to begin to work, people will see things happen in their life they never thought would happen. Since they never thought would be defeated and eradicated, will all of a sudden get routed out. We'll learn that we can submit to his will over our own. As a first timer, seven says, will submit ourselves to God. Then when we resist the devil. What will happen? He will flee from us. We can submit to his will, we can resist the devil, not in our own strength. Don't fool yourself here. You're no match for Satan. If Satan ever cast his eyes on you and decided I'm going to take him down. You'd be in big trouble. Without the grace of God working in your life. But with God's grace, you can reject the will of Satan and your own flesh with God's grace, we can draw nigh to him all night to God, and he will draw nothing to you. The more we deny ourselves and get closer to God, the more will change in our behavior. Grace fuel transformation will change our attitude towards the things that we lost after all of a sudden, things that were so appealing and we thought, well, how can I ever say no to this? This has been in my life since I was like 12 years old. I'll never get the victory, God's grace. All of a sudden, that thing that used to be so appealing all of a sudden not so appealing. All of a sudden, not only is it not appealing, it actually kind of makes you sick. And actually fills you with a righteous anger when you think about the years you wasted in service to this. And don't make no mistake, sin will consume your life. I've known some people that have been deeply involved in sin, and you realize they can't think or talk or do anything but that sin. My am I not? Come on, haven't you? I mean, it consumes their world. But you Christians, you're so small minded and and and you don't know how to how to to make it through life without your Jesus crutch. I'm sorry, but the people that I've known that were given over to sin can't make it through a day without giving in to their flesh and their lusts. And so would all of us be if it weren't for the grace of God, every single one of us? Would be consumed by our sin. Jesus Christ comes in, you realize there's a better way to live, you realize there's more fulfillment in Jesus than in the world, then all of a sudden you're your attitude towards things start to change. We see clean hands. In verse number eight, we see pure hearts, single minds, we see our outward actions changing, our inward being is changing. Our minds are focused on true purpose in life. The true purpose of every human being is to bring glory to God. That's why you were created to bring glory to your creator. This grace fueled transformation changes us, and our lust is something not to be celebrated, but something that should be mourned over, he says, be afflicted and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to heaviness. Here are these people in these churches, and they're they're fighting over control and leadership in the church. And let's say one party comes out victorious and they're celebrating and just pumping and high fighting. James is like, are you kidding? You're celebrating your last's. Should be mourning over your lusts, your laughter should be weeping. But that's the way our world is these days. The things we should mourn over are celebrated. The things that that we should weep over. People are high five in. Lifting up and praising. Lust isn't something that should be taken lightly, lust isn't something that we exalt ourselves over. The presence of lust and lust fueled decisions ought to burden us. It ought to humble us. And if we humble ourselves before God. Well, then the very thing we saw before is what will happen. He will lift us up. Humble yourselves in the side of the Lord and he shall lift you up. Oh, there it is. That is really, Gary, if I humble myself before God, I'll be a millionaire. Now. But if you humble yourself before God, I can guarantee you this, you will find fulfillment in God. If you will, humble, humble yourself before God, you will find strength in God. He doesn't want to lift it up. Everyone wants to be lifted up. Even even the introverts, they say they want to be lifted up, they want to be recognized. They want to be celebrated. They want someone, even if it's in quiet in the back back room to say good job. We needed you. Great work. You did excellent. Everyone wants to be lifted up, that's why lust is a problem. That's why it leads to all manner of sin. It is, therefore, that we need God to be the one that lifts us up and not ourselves. James closes with a warning. Versus 11 and 12. He says, speak not evil, one of another. Don't read this passage. Start thinking of someone else. Stink murder, guilty of that one. See it on your faces. You're thinking of somebody as I'm talking about these things. You're thinking of so-and-so who deals with so-and-so, such and such. They have given into their lust shame on them. It's too bad they're not here, if they were here, they could really use this message. This is your reaction. Sorry I set you up, but. You've missed the point. The point is not that we would sit here because we're here on church on a Wednesday night and as we week and look at me, I'm super spiritual. Sit here and judge other people. There are some 11 or 12. You leave the judgment to God. Take a good, hard look at ourselves. Because you deal with lust. Just the same as so-and-so who does such and such deals with lust. Focused on humbling yourself. Where in the Bible does it say it is our duty to humble our brother? Uh. Uh. Yeah, yeah, verse number seven, verse number seven. Simit. Yourselves. First number 10. You still have your Bible open right here in. Humble. Yourselves. Humble your neighbor. Not humble your spouse. Humble yourselves. Lust must be rooted out both in our church and in our lives, we cannot afford to allow lust to linger in our life. It will cause too much damage. It will cause division between us and our fellow Christians. But more importantly, it will cause division between us and our God. Hold on. Is there another relationship that's more important than your relationship with God? Regardless of what you think right now, I can tell you that one day everyone will agree there is no other relationship more important than your relationship with God. You can scoff at it now, but one day you'll you'll agree. We lust for authority isn't what you struggle with. Maybe it is authority doesn't have to be accompanied by a formal position, usually the people who want authority the most are the ones who deserve it the least. But less can pop up over other desires as well. Perhaps you lust after someone else's family situation. Perhaps you lust after someone else's possessions. Whatever the case, we must not allow ourselves to think that lust is an innocent vice. It is extremely dangerous, it cannot give us what we hope to gain. Whatever you've been promised by the world, whatever advertising has made you believe, whatever a book or a psychiatrist or self-help tick tock that you watched or even a TV show doesn't matter. Whatever the world has led you to believe, if you'll do this, you'll be happy if you have this, you'll be happy if you're if you if you'll just find this and you'll be happy. It's not true. Lust will never give you what you hope to gain. The only answer is to humble ourselves and access the power of God's grace. God's grace will allow us to submit to his will and not our own. Ultimately, it is God's grace that will lift us up. Not our own efforts. So as we look through Grace, look through the Bible for Grace, James for one through 12 helps us see. We've all got a problem with lust. And the only answer is the grace of God. How do you access it? By humbling yourself. It's got a. I've got this problem. I can't fix it, I don't know what to do with it, I need your help. And the humble person receives grace from the Lord and the father, we thank you for this day. Thank you for the good attention of the folks are here to pray that you help all of us to examine our lives and see where the lust in our life lies. And I pray that we would be quick to confess it to you would humble ourselves before you. And we will allow your grace to work in us, to cleanse us, Lord, from the unrighteousness that so many times we are guilty of. What I pray that you would use your Holy Spirit to speak to people's hearts here tonight in Jesus name that I ask these things. Amen. Thank you for your good attention tonight. You did not receive a prayer. She really, Carol, has those. We're out of them, hey, so many of you all showed up, we were all out, if you would like, one of you can call the church office will send you an email PDF copy. That way you can have that for your for for your week. Two requests that came in on Sunday that I want to make you aware of. One is, please be in prayer for brother Dale Jones's dad. Is it his dad who had a stroke and his his wife has severe dementia. So please pray for Miss Rachel and brother Dale and the whole family as they deal with that. I know that they will definitely appreciate your prayers in the coming days and weeks as they address that situation. So please pray for them and then pray also for Keith Armstrong. This is Miss Martha Rosenthal's son. He was in the hospital earlier this week, but he was allowed to come home. And so that was a great blessing to keep Brother Keith or keep Keith in your prayers as he continues to recover. He would have no more episodes. We are a little past time. So if you do have an update or a new request, please catch me after the service will write those down and make sure they get included in the prayer sheet next week. Let's all stand and we're going to be dismissed. And a word of prayer. And thank you all so much for being here tonight in the middle of a vacation Bible school week. I hope that it's been a challenge to you and an encouragement and that will seek to apply these things for life as we leave here and go about the rest of our week. Heavenly Father, we thank for this day. Thank you for all the folks that are here tonight. Bless them for making the effort to be here. Lord help us as we leave this place to go and operate. And Your Grace. Oh, Lord, I pray that you would continue to have your hand of protection and blessing upon the vacation Bible school workers and the kids. And we would have a good end of the week and we would see more children get saved as we go through these last couple of days. We love you so much. Thank you for all you do for us. It's in Jesus name, I pray. Amen. Thank you all. You're dismissed.

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