IT’S NOT YOU, IT’S ME SERIOUSLY | PASTOR LUKE LEZON

All

right. Any parents in the house? We got

any parents in the house? How's that

going?

Is that going different for you than it

is for me? I just just out of curiosity.

Uh hey, um I I say that because I I just

want to add to what's been said. And let

me just tell you, our kids team does an

incredible job putting Navigate together

coming up. Uh if you care at all about

your littles coming to know and love

Jesus and you being better equipped to

help them be discipled all throughout

that journey, uh then you will be there

or you will help make sure that other

people can be there. Can I get a

witness? Right. Uh like listen, one

thing we care about a lot here is that

families are being discipled and that

they are growing up within the body of

the church that they might come to know

Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and not

just kind of backslide a little bit from

there on out, but actually pursue him

with all of who they are and all of what

they have. So, it it might seem like uh

writing a check is is is not that big of

a deal if you can't give much or serving

is not that big of a deal. Or let me

just tell you, generations of families

that can point to how this moment

changed their life will be so grateful

for the way that we all step in and

serve to make sure that children in our

community are growing up with gospel-

centered knowledge of who Jesus Christ

is and what he's done for us and how we

live for him. Is that is everybody

behind that with me? So albeit four of

you care about our kids, which is really

great. And so uh everybody else is fine

with the heathens running around and

we'll we'll get over that. It's fine.

We'll still be here. Uh and so let me

just say uh it is so great to see you

and to be here with you all this

morning. I am so grateful that we're

gathered together in this house and I'm

grateful because we're continuing in

this collection of conversations that

we've been in over the course of the

past several weeks that we have been

calling Walk the Walk. Walk the walk is

a collection and a discussion that has

us living and lingering in the book of

James. And what we see is that James

wants to make sure that we are a people

that are practicing what we preach. And

so we've taken the title for this

collection from a famed phrase that

says, "Don't just talk the talk, but

rather walk the walk." And James

understands what the Christian walk

looks like. He knows that we live in a

broken and a fallen world that is sick

with sin. Sin which separates us from a

holy and a perfect God. In fact, Romans

Romans 6 · chapter mention

chapter 6 23 would say, "For the wages

of sin is death." And that's not just a

physical death, but even worse is an

eternal spiritual death, eternal

separation from that holy and perfect

God who could not be holy, perfect, or

just if he allowed sin in the camp. And

so, we needed somebody to radically

rescue and intervene on our behalf.

Otherwise, we would be hopeless. And the

good news of the gospel is that in a

merciful demonstration of sacrificial

love and grace in Jesus Christ there is

salvation. Yes. We excited about that

this morning? I'm be on y'all this

morning. I just need you to know that.

So, uh we better be excited about that.

That Ephesians says in him is redemption

and the forgiveness of sin. And so we're

a people that gather here today and

we're grateful that we are not trying to

achieve salvation, but we have received

it as a free gift in the sacrifice in

the person of Jesus Christ. We repent of

our sins, turning our face toward him

and put our faith in him. The good news

of the gospel is not that you and I have

a chance now to try to climb our way to

God. The good news of the gospel is that

God came down to us in the person that

is his son, Jesus Christ. And so we

understand that we are not saved by our

works, but the saved will demonstrate

works. And so we are a people that

understand that we have renewed and

regenerated hearts under the power of

the Holy Spirit at work within us, but

also have engaged heads and hands in the

work of the ministry, the kingdom of God

going forward on earth in Orlando as it

is in heaven. And so congratulations. Uh

we have moved through James chapter 1,

James 1 · chapter mention

2, and three. And we are now in James

James 4 · chapter mention

chapter 4, beginning in verse one. James

James 4 · chapter mention

chapter 4, verse one. If you have a copy

of the scriptures, get there. If you're

still working out your salvation scroll.

And I want to take a moment and let you

know that as we move through this, uh,

you are not going to probably dislike a

message more than you dislike this one

today. And I say that to you because

James isn't letting up on us. And so I'm

not going to let up on us. Uh like this

is what the text says. And I think

there's a lot of us like even if we're

excited about the idea of a difficult

message that hits us right in the solar

plexus, I think the reality is there's

got to be a tenderness in our hearts

going into it, being willing to receive

something that we maybe don't even think

we need right now. Uh and so I want to

read James chapter 4 beginning in verse

James 4 · chapter mention

one. Are y'all with me this morning? I I

need you to do better than that. Are you

ready for the word this morning? Anybody

grateful that we're saved by grace

through faith? It says

this. What is the source of wars and

fights among you? Don't they come from

your passions that wage war within you?

You desire and do not have. You murder

and covet and cannot obtain. You fight

and wage war. You do not have because

you do not ask. You ask and don't

receive because you ask with wrong

motives so that you may spend it on your

pleasures. You adulterous people. Don't

you know that friendship with the world

is hostility toward God? So, whoever

wants to be the friend of the world

becomes the enemy of God. Or do you

think that it's without reason that the

scripture says the spirit he made to

dwell in us envies intensely, but he

gives greater grace. Anybody grateful

for that right there? But he gives

greater grace. Therefore, he says, God

resists the proud but gives grace to the

humble. 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, sinners, and

purify your hearts, you double-minded.

Be miserable and mourn and weep. Let

your laughter be turned to mourning and

your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves

before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

Don't criticize one another, brothers

and sisters. Anyone who defames or

judges a fellow believer defames and

judges the law. If you judge the law,

you are not a doer of the law, but a

judge. There is one lawgiver and judge

who is able to save and to destroy. But

who are you to judge your neighbor?

Let's pray

together. Lord, we need

a

serious level of humility in this house

coming into this word uh that you have

laid out for us because God, we are not

a people that can find ourselves in a

place where we have anything to stand

on.

Lord, you gave it all that you might

have all of us. And Lord, for any of

those areas in our life where we are not

fully surrendered to you, God, I ask

right now that you would absolutely

wreck us in this place, spirit of the

living God, would you move in this house

in a remarkable way and would you break

open the hearts of individuals that

aren't even really caring about what I'm

saying right

now? Father, would you radically work in

us that we might be conformed into your

image? Lord, we are not trying to carve

for ourselves images of us, but Father,

we are trying to be molded into your

likeness. Father, we love you. We praise

you and we thank you. We ask these

things in Jesus name.

Amen. Well, in the fame tale written by

Victor Hugo, Lelay Miseraba will take

place in the 19th century, and we see

that it will happen in

post-revolutionary war France. Uh, it

begins with a main character, Jean

Valjon. Jean Valjon is an individual

that has just been released from serving

a 19-year sentence in prison for all of

his crimes. And we see that his major

crime that he committed is that he ended

up stealing a loaf of bread in order to

be able to save his sister's starving

child from death. That he acted in

desperation because his family was in a

destitute position. And we see that as a

result of that that Jean Valjon will end

up having to serve what was originally

supposed to be a 5-year sentence. But it

continually gets delayed and extended

because he'll make multiple escape

attempts in prison. None of which end up

being successful. And so now after 19

years, he is finally released. But he's

not all that different from the way that

he went in. When he's released from

prison, things actually might be worse

on this side of things. Because what we

see is that now he'll come to find out

that to have a criminal record was a

societal cancer. Nobody wants to give

him housing. Nobody wants to give him

any kind of work. And not only will they

not give him housing or work, but people

look at him and they feel like he

doesn't even deserve basic human dignity

whenever they see him. And so as a

result, Jean Valjian is angry, bitter,

starving, and he's filled with all of

this rage. but he will miraculously end

up crossing paths with a loving and a

kind bishop who will hear about all of

these things in Jean Valjon's life, but

he will bring him into his home anyway.

And we see that Jean Valjon will

unfortunately end up taking advantage of

this bishop's loving kindness under the

cover of darkness. He'll find all the

silver that he can in the bishop's home

and he'll run away. But as he does,

police find him and they recognize that

this is not a man that should be

carrying this much silver. and they ask

him where he got it. And so Jean Valjon

escorts them back to the bishop's home

and the policemen knock on the door. And

when they do, the bishop ends up

answering and he's putting all the

pieces together in real time. He sees

Jean Valjan, who's been staying with him

with all of this silver that belongs to

him. He sees the policeman behind him

and he says something astonishing in

that moment. He says to the policeman,

"Oh no, you've made a mistake. I gave

him that silver." And then he says, "And

John, you forgot the candlesticks. take

them too. And all of a sudden, the

policemen are dumbfounded, but nobody's

more dumbfounded than Jean Valjan, whose

jaw is on the floor in that moment. And

when the policemen go away, it's just

the bishop and Jean. And we see that the

bishop will say to him, Jean Valjan, you

no longer belong to evil, but to good. I

have bought your soul to God. And in

that moment, he experiences radical

grace. And he falls to his knees and he

weeps. There is a breaking and a

remaking by grace. He'll end up taking

on a new name. He'll live a new life, a

life that is marked with compassion,

with grace, with justice. He'll become a

business owner. He'll become the mayor.

He'll even end up carrying out his

desire for justice in a godly way. That

he is championing those that are poor

and those that are suffering. And yet,

despite all of these incredible things

that are happening in his life as a

result of this change, we see that there

is a man from his past that cannot

fathom that an individual like Jean

Valjan could grow in such grace. And we

see that as a result, he seeks to end

him, to see him fall. And so, we see

that in this moment, Inspector Jave

enters the picture. Inspector Ja oversaw

Jean Valjan's sentence. And as he did,

he found himself in a position where he

was constantly letting him know that

this is exactly where he should be.

Inspector Jav sees himself as the

embodiment of law and order, as the sole

arbiter of truth and justice. He's an

individual that sees nothing more divine

or spectacular than seeing individuals

punished that have broken a law. And so

as a result, he tells everyone in his

life, he's a man that's just after this

truth and justice, but there's something

actually broken on the inside of him.

While he tells everyone that he's about

seeing truth and justice in his life,

the fact of the matter is he cannot

fathom that grace would be distributed

to somebody that he doesn't think is

worthy of it. He cannot imagine a world

in which he might be wrong. He's living

a life being built upon the idea of

being seen as righteous, but it's

actually his own pride. And when he

comes face to face with himself, it

breaks him in a way that's different

than the way that we see Jean Valjon is

broken. During a political uprising,

Inspector Jave and Jean Valjan are in

close proximity with one another. And

John Valjon has an opportunity to kill

this man that's been hunting him. And he

says, "I will not harm you. You are

free." And Inspector Jav has no idea

what to do with this. He's just

experienced this grace that changed Jean

Valjan's life, but he doesn't receive it

in the same way. He recognizes in this

moment, the only response to such grace

is that you would have to humble

yourself before this man that you think

is so evil, before God Almighty himself.

And so Victor Hugo would write that in

that moment, Inspector Ja says to

himself, damned if I'll live in the debt

of a thief and damned if I'll yield at

the end of the chase. Which is him

saying, I cannot possibly have to deal

with the fact that grace has been given

to an individual that I don't think

should have received it and certainly

not that that individual would extend

grace to me. I cannot possibly imagine

that all of my life's pursuits have been

for not. And so he ends up taking his

own life. that we see that in this

moment there's this ugly tale that

arises that Jave has been hunting and

following this man in Jean Valjon saying

he's seeking truth and justice with all

of his life and he's lying to himself.

He really believes this at one point,

but he is lying and he is fooling

himself that we see that rigid pride in

his life is creating conflict and as a

result of that he's doing it under the

guise of truth and justice. He thinks

that he's in a battle with Jean Valjan,

but he's really in a battle with

himself. And so he's so focused on being

a man of truth and justice that he's

only focused externally. But while he's

focused externally, there's a bigger

battle that's happening internally. And

we see that pride in his life is

masquerading as righteousness. And I say

that to you this morning because we do

the same

thing that you can find yourself living

your life convincing yourself it is with

certain motivations and their

motivations that you have not truly

submitted to the Lord God Almighty. And

so you find yourself being driven by

things that are not of God. And we see

that James is going to say, "Hey, you

like to look externally at how other

people have wronged you and what's

happened and you're building your whole

life on that." And he's saying, "God is

going to bend your hand from pointing

the finger here to pointing the finger

here." And he says here in James 4,

beginning in verse one, "What is the

source of wars and fights among you?

Don't they come from your passions that

wage war within you?" I love that he

asks a rhetorical question and he gives

an answer. Any parents in the room know

what that's

like? Why isn't your room clean? Is it

because you're being a terrible child

right now? Like you ask a rhetorical

question, but then you also just go

ahead, let me lob an answer out there.

He says, "What is the source of wars and

fights among you?" Isn't it those

passions that wage war within

you? He he says wars and fights. He's

saying there's interpersonal struggle

even in the church. you've got a problem

with this person, they got a problem

with them and these got a problem with

those and there's all of these issues

that are happening and you're only

thinking about it in an external way and

you need to start focusing on the

internal. He says, "Let me help you out.

If you don't know what the issue really

is, what is the source of all these wars

and fights among you, the source, the

origin story? Isn't it that you have all

these things happening on the inside and

that's the wellspring of conflict that's

overflowing on the outside?" He says,

'Isn't the issue

you? And we don't like that. We don't

like that. I did some light reading on

Satanism this

week. And as I was up early seeking the

Lord Jesus Christ with the Church of

Satan's website on my computer, hoping

nobody knocked on my door. Um, it was

amazing to read their declaration of

faith and what it is that they say. This

is on the Church of Satan's website. I

don't recommend going there. Uh, I just

I did the work for you. And it says

this, our position is to be

self-centered with our self being the

most important person, the god of our

subjective universe. And so we are

sometimes said to worship ourselves.

Satan is to us a symbol of pride,

liberty, and individualism. And it

serves as an external metaphorical

projection of our highest personal

potential. How many of y'all are reading

a book right now about achieving your

highest personal potential?

We do not believe in Satan as a being or

person.

Satanists don't believe in

Satan. They don't even think he's

real. You believe in Satan more than

Satanists believe in

Satan. The question is, are you less

self-centered than Satanists

are? They're centered on

self. We find ourselves in a position

right now where we are living at a time

and it's even touched the church of such

cultural

selfcenteredness that as I was reading

this, I was broken as I was reading on

their website what it is that they

declare as a statement of faith. Because

to be honest with you, I wondered to

myself, are we a people that are more

aligned with the church of Satan or the

kingdom of heaven? Are we a people that

live with such

selfobsession that we live in direct

contradiction to the kingdom of heaven?

Because I know that many of us all that

we just heard probably riles everything

up within us. That we just heard, hey,

that source of wars and fights among

you. You've got internal battles that

are creating external wars. That your

bigger issue is what's happening within

us than it is something that's happened

because of them. And whenever we hear

that, immediately we want to start

defending our position and we go into

this mode of self-preservation. But but

but

but you don't understand what they did

to me. You don't understand what

happened. You don't understand these

things. Many of us are living our life

and we are making decisions daily based

upon things that have happened to

us. And what I want for you today is to

be free from that.

There are so many of us where we are

living our lives. The things we say, the

things we do, the things that are

happening in our life, they're the

result of because of what someone did to

me. I'm trying to prove my dad wrong.

I'm trying to make my mom understand

that I made something of myself. That

that person who hurt me, oh yeah, watch

this. That we're doing things in our

life because we are trying to let people

know that have hurt us in our mind at

some point. Hey, this is the deal. watch

me go. And can I just go ahead and tell

you that there is a freedom on the other

side of that? That there are many of us

that are in here right now and the Lord

is just going to break you down until

you get to this place of understanding.

Did something happened to you that you

don't like? Probably. Was it justified?

Maybe not. But the truth of the matter

is for 99% of our issues, nothing

sinister or criminal happened to you.

You just didn't like

it. You just didn't like it. and it's

driving your whole life. And we can live

at a time of such self-centeredness

right now in the way that we are trying

to say, "I'm I'm I'm living my life for

Jesus." And the truth of the matter is,

we're so self-centered that we even are

expecting our churches to become these

things that they're never designed to

be. Listen, you do not have a pastor

that is going to build you a cruise ship

called self-care that caters to your

feelings. Uh we're not going to build a

cruise ship called self-care that's

like, "Well, this is what I'm feeling

and this is what I want and well, you

got to understand these people and these

things." No, we're called to be a

battleship of

self-sacrifice and forgiveness that you

weigh into the into the world with a

warship that is built on this idea that

you do things differently than the way

that the rest of the world is doing it.

But even we desire to see satisfaction

of our own selfish desire more than we

desire to be sanctified in the Lord

Jesus Christ. And I don't know how to

tell you this. It doesn't matter those

things that have happened to you. Does

the Lord care about them? Absolutely.

But you follow a king who forgave the

people that crucified him and you feel

like you can defend every inconvenience

in your life.

You follow a king who as his back was

ripped open. You could see his lungs

with every breath that he took was put

onto a cross with splinters in his lungs

that could barely even be made sense of.

Like, who is that guy? He forgave the

people that did that to him. But you

want to seek vengeance on everybody

that's inconvenienced or wronged

you? Please explain that. Well, you

don't understand what they did. Did they

hoist you upon the cross for the sins of

the

world? There's freedom on the other side

of this in

forgiveness. And James won't let up on

it. He won't. He says in verse two, you

desire and do not have. You murder and

covet and cannot obtain. You fight and

wage war. He's saying, "Listen, we are

filled with selfish ambition, selfish

desire, and we'll do anything that we

can in order to make sure that that

satisfaction happens in our life. We

will throw time and we will throw

resources at anything that we can do to

have our selfish desires satisfied." And

he says, "Hey, but the truth is these

internal battles that are creating

external wars are the results of

internal lust that you like to blame on

external situations.

It's because of them. And God says,

"Let's let's look inside." And we don't

like to do

that. I'm not into horse

racing. It's just not my thing. Look at

me. And so I don't like animals that are

bigger than a certain size. It's like,

"What are we doing?" You know, I don't

camp. I don't do horses. I I don't do

any of those things that uh quite

honestly don't make sense. And so um

it's amazing though. I have some core

memories that you you ever have a core

memory and you're just like why why is

that there? I don't even know why that's

there and so I don't often end up

watching horse races unless it's a

bigger one like if the pnness is on that

I actually won't watch the pnness either

but like uh like the Kentucky Derby is a

pretty big one. Are we all familiar with

the Kentucky Derby in

here? Just raise your hand for the sake

of participation. You know what the

Kentucky Derby is? I you know like I

mean just Okay, we all know what the

Kentucky Derby is. For whatever reason,

a core memory for me is that I remember

watching the Kentucky Derby intently for

the first time. Don't know why, but I

do. And I remember they were panning to

all of these different shots and they

were uh people with um hats that cost

more than my house and there were people

that uh were looked ridiculous. And it's

like, are we in like Elizabeth in

England right now? And and like all of

these things and then they they show

horses prancing and galloping and

they're just like and there's his coach.

I'm like, his coach is a human? Like

what? And so there there's all of these

people that are doing these things and

these guys that get paid to do stuff

that probably doesn't actually work. And

and so as you're watching all of this

unfold, I'm watching the horses and I'm

mind blown by the fact that uh they have

like these flaps over their

eyes. And as I'm looking at these flaps

on their eyes, I'm like, "Well, that

that makes sense." Uh because you

probably keep these flaps on the horse's

eye in order to lead it into the stable

so it'll remain calm. I think we have a

picture of these flap things. And so I'm

like that that makes sense. You know,

you're gearing up for a big race. Get

the horse in the stable. Make sure that

everything feels like not anxious. And

then obviously you'll end up taking that

off the horse's face because I don't I

don't drive blindfolded. Would imagine

you don't want to run a horse uh that

can't see. That doesn't make any kind of

sense. But they escort the horses into

the stable. The gun goes off and they

start racing around the raceourse. And

and and I am kind of panicked and I'm

I'm like, we got to stop the Kentucky

Derby. They didn't take the blinders off

the horse, right? Like something is

wrong. And so I find myself in a

position where you ever been in a

situation where you're like I think

everyone else knows what's going on but

I don't. So I don't want to ask it so

I'll secretly Google it. Uh this is this

is where I was in this moment. Okay. I'm

just like obviously I'm the odd man out.

And so I stumbled across the Dallas

Equestrian Cent's website which by the

way is just a fancy word for horse

riding if you didn't know what

equestrian means. Uh I grew up in

Dallas, Texas and I had no idea what

this word means. First time someone was

like are you a Christian? I was like I'm

a Christian. Um

um you get away from me with that devil

junk, you know. You're like, "It's horse

riding." I was like, "Obviously." And um

I was just messing with you. And it said

this on the Dallas Equestrian C Center's

website. Horses sometimes need to be

made to focus and blinders keep the

horse's eyes focused on what is ahead

rather than what is at the side or

behind. That is why raceh horses are

often given blinders for the purpose of

keeping focused when racing around a

racecourse. The jockey has very little

amounts of control over the horse. If a

horse decides to take a different route,

it will simply take the jockey with it.

And this can pose problems, which I love

that little anecdote. It's like the

jockey actually doesn't do anything. And

if the horse wants to go somewhere with

him, the jockey will follow. It says,

"Troublesome raceh horses are fitted

with blinders for their own safety and

for the jockeyy's safety.

I think some of us need some spiritual

blinders

on this

place where you find yourself in a place

where you can't even run the race that's

been set before you by God Almighty

because of what they did and because of

what they did at the side and

behind. And you find yourself in a place

where James says, "You need to focus

your troublesome racehorse running

around this raceourse." And you need to

do it in a way to where you recognize

you've got enough passions that are

waging war within you where you don't

have to worry about what's going on here

or there. Because if you do, you will

run towards sin instead of your

savior. And James continues on and he

will say in verse three, "You desire and

do not have. You murder and covet and

cannot obtain. You fight and wage war.

You do not have because you do not ask.

You ask and don't receive because you

ask with wrong motives so that you may

spend it on your own pleasures. We seek

desires and the satisfaction of them on

such a level that we will even as

believers in Jesus Christ struggle to

not look inward as much as we do upward.

There are some of us that are so

committed to living our life based upon

what we feel like has gone on in

previous areas of our life that we will

settle with what God has given us in a

way to where we are pursuing the things

that we want for our life rather than

the things that he wants for our

life. And so James will say you do not

have because you do not ask. And when

you do ask, you ask with wrong motives.

James says, "Here's one of the biggest

issues is when it comes to your prayer

life, you don't have

one. You don't have

one. How much time did you spend in the

presence of God praying for him to

change the things in the world that you

were too busy posting on Facebook that

you hope were

different? What's your screen time look

like compared to your

time with Jesus Christ?" He says, "You

don't have a prayer life. That's your

biggest issue." And then he says, "The

problem is if you do have a prayer life,

a lot of our prayer life is us kind of

treating God like a genie. We we ask him

to kind of end up doing things for us

that we've tried to do for ourselves and

that's not working. So, I guess we'll

kind of go to God with it a little bit."

And we end up going into prayer more

like we're reciting an incantation than

we are entering into relationship with

the heavenly father. If I just say this

right and do these things right, well

then maybe it'll work out and maybe I'll

kind of get what I want. And that's not

what it is. that we're supposed to be a

people that realize prayer is entering

into the presence of God, communion with

God, and being able to communicate with

our heavenly father. And can I just tell

you, some of y'all don't like it because

you try to make it pretty and it's the

ugliest thing ever. Like, I mean, if you

show up at my office at 6:30, you're

going to think a psychopath is up there

because I am just going crazy throwing

things before God. And you don't have to

dress everything up pretty. You get up

there and you just say, "God, this is

what I'm struggling with. This is where

I feel like I've got passions that are

waging war within me. I feel wronged by

this person. I feel like these people

don't get this. I don't really

understand that. This is what I'm

struggling with at home, and I don't

really know if I'm going to be able to

fix it. God, these are the things that

I'm excited about. This is the thing

that's putting wind in my sales, and I

hope it's the right thing." But God, add

or remove anything that is going to keep

me from fully pursuing you with every

single ounce of what I've

got. Lord, it's yours. But so often we

pray the reversal of the Lord's prayer

in the Garden of Gethsemane and we're

busy going, Lord, not thy will be done,

my will be

done. This is what I want from you.

Instead of submitting before him, God,

what is it that you would have me do?

What do you want from

me? We see that he'll say, "You

adulterous people, don't you know that

friendship with the world is hostility

toward God? So, whoever wants to be the

friend of the world becomes the enemy of

God? Or do you think it's without reason

that the scripture says the spirit he

made to dwell in us envies intensely?"

We should have noticed a tonal

difference in this particular part of

James. Yes, we've gone from brothers and

sisters, brothers and sisters, brothers

and sisters to you adulterous people.

And it's like, "Huh? what happened? Uh

what's going

on? And we see that

James, let me remind you, is writing to

a predominantly Jewish audience. And

because of that, he's reminding them of

something that they would understand

very well given their cultural context.

Friendship with the world is hostility

toward

God. Often times we operate in spiritual

unfaithfulness. And he's saying to this

predominantly Jewish audience, you guys

know as a nation and as a people that we

have the proclivity to follow God really

well in a moment and he can show up in a

remarkable way on our behalf and the

next moment we'll be worshiping idols

and you can very easily go from falling

in love with the Lord to falling in love

with the created things rather than the

creator. Romans 1 would

say and he says friendship with the

world is hostility towards God. Very

often we can spend more time worshiping

idols but we can say that we're the ones

who are trusting and following in the

King of glory. And he's like does your

life actually look like that? He says

you adulterous people, you've got to

deal with these things or God will deal

with you on them. And we know how that's

gone as we look at the history of our

people.

But he says in verse six, but he gives

greater

grace. Therefore, he says, God resists

the proud but gives grace to the humble.

This is an alltime scripture that should

have all of us rejoicing on our face

every single

week. The Lord is jealous for you. He's

zealous. He is uninterested in us being

a people that are going to try to share

glory that we should be giving to God

with other people. He's uninterested in

part-time worship. And as we feel like

we've been reading James and it's like,

"Man, this is tough. Man, that's a lot.

Man, that's hard." All of a sudden, here

comes the reprieve that we have so

desperately needed. And what does it

say? But he gives greater

grace. God has a really high standard

for devotion to him. And what does he do

when you fall in that? When you stumble,

when you struggle? Does he shut the door

in your face? Does he kick you while

you're down? Does he berate you and tell

you to get off his porch? No. It says he

gives greater grace. That he resists the

proud and gives grace to the humble. I

got to tell you in worship sometimes I'm

amazed and I know we all grew up

different but I got to tell you some of

us are so unmoved in worship that I'm

like man I hope that we are a people

that understand how amazing how

unbelievable it is that the king of

glory has extended grace to us because

if you don't then you've forgotten how

badly you needed grace or you've

forgotten that you need grace as badly

today as you did on the day that you got

saved. He says he resists the proud and

gives grace to the

humble. He resists the

proud. Those people ah those they they

shouldn't get no you don't understand

what they've done. You don't it's but he

gives grace to the humble. If God gave

out grace as sparingly as you give out

grace to people in your life, you

wouldn't even be in the kingdom of

heaven. But he gives greater grace.

Those of us that have tasted and seen

that the Lord is good, that have

experienced grace, understand that grace

is like water. It flows to the lowest

elevation. And so we are a people that

should be low before the Lord. And

recognize I am not the one that tells or

helps God distribute grace. I am just a

beggar telling other beggars that's

where you find bread. That when you've

experienced grace, we should also be a

people that extend grace. And so often

we can be stingy with it. God resists

the proud but gives grace to the humble.

It 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,

sinners, and purify your hearts, you

double-minded." He says, "Therefore,"

saying, "As a result of the grace that

we've experienced in our life," what is

the response? Humble

submission. Humble submission is the

only answer. that we're a people that

surrender our own will and say, 'Lord,

I'm done with any kind of agenda or

desire that I have for myself. I am

prioritizing what it is that you would

have for my life over the things that I

want for myself. And for some of us,

that would be the first time that we've

even entered prayer in that way. What is

it, Lord, that you would change in my

life? And am I open and submitted to it?

And you see that James is going to use

language that would have people that

were in a predominantly Jewish context

understand that oftentimes you need to

get to a place where you're willing to

change where you're even willing to go

to God asking what is it that you want

for my life because there's this weird

amalgamation of things that are said in

these verses. And I think we understand

it's interesting. He says uh submit to

God, resist the devil, he'll flee from

you. Draw near to God. He'll draw near

to you. Cleanse your hands. Purify your

hearts. You're double-minded. Like like

what does all of this mean?

humble submission to God, resisting the

devil because you have a real enemy and

those that do his bidding, that have

nothing more that they desire than to

see you walk in

disobedience. And yet at the same time,

he starts using all of this different

language about drawing near and

cleansing. I love the way that Oswald

Chambers said it, the great theologian

who wrote an incredible devotional

called My Utmost for His Highest, when

he said, "You can measure your growth in

grace based on your sensitivity to sin.

And James is talking to a group of

people that would understand, hey,

cleanse your hands, purify your hearts.

There was a lot of ritualistic cleansing

and purifying that would happen in

Jewish culture. And that would be how

you could even participate in meals.

That would be how you could participate

in worship. You had to do those things

before you entered into any kind of

communal aspect with people and with

God. And so James is saying, "Hey, what

are those things in your life that you

need to be cleansed of? What are those

things that you need to repent of?" He

he says you need to deal with that. And

he really gets into it in the next verse

where it becomes really plain where

he'll actually end up saying to us, "Be

miserable and mourn and weep. Let your

laughter be turned to mourning and your

joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before

the Lord and he will exalt you." Well,

it looked like we were on a good

trajectory there for a

minute. It kind of looked like things

were looking up and then it was like,

"Be miserable. Mourn

weep. Let your joy be gloom." You're

like, "What is going on?

He's calling for real

repentance. Everyone in here is more

prideful than we care to admit. Every

single person in here. And he's calling

for real repentance.

We want grace distributed to us in

buckets, but we will just give drops to

other

people. And he says, you better humble

yourself and

repent. And he talks about it. He says,

"Don't criticize one another, brothers

and sisters. Anyone who defames or

judges a fellow believer defames and

judges the law. If you judge the law,

you're not a doer of the law, but a

judge. There's one lawgiver and judge

who's able to save and to destroy. But

who are you to judge your neighbor? Why

is criticizing one another dangerous?

Because you're putting yourself in the

place of

God. You know about 150th of what's

going on in somebody's life, but you're

ready to make full-blown decisions on

that. But it's interesting. He says, "Do

not judge." And I think in our cultural

context, a lot of people will use that

as like a catch-all verse to kind of

shame someone who's a believer. The

funny thing is that non-believers,

that's their favorite verse is do not

judge. Jesus says in Matthew 7:1, "Do

Matthew 7:1

not judge so that you won't be judged."

And a lot of people in culture will

weaponize that against believers,

saying, "Hey, you should tolerate all of

the sinful things that God says not to

do in scripture. Don't judge." judge and

it's like no that's not what that

means. We live in a time right now

where disagreeing with someone's

decision is the equivalent of harboring

hatred towards that

person. He's saying you can love someone

unconditionally and yet at the same time

not have unconditional approval for

everything that they do. Jesus is not

here prohibiting judging. He's giving us

a right prescription for judging. This

is the same Jesus that said you'll know

them by their fruit. Saying you can

examine a situation critically without

killing someone with

criticism. But the scary thing is what

he says in verse two. He says do not

judge so that you won't be judged. But

then he says you will be judged by the

same standards that you judge. Hello.

based on how you think and act toward

other

people. Is that the standard you want

used for

you? I'm amazed that some of the most

critical and fault-f finding people I

know are people that claim to be a

believer in Jesus. We are so good at

seeing small issues in another person's

life and we are just oblivious to the

ones in our

own. We like to call criticism

discernment.

And you got to be careful putting

yourself in place of God.

It's interesting in lay miserab there's

a

moment John Valjon steals all the silver

from the bishop and he runs away through

the back of the house and there's a

garden in the back of the

house and after there's been this moment

of forgiveness the bishop says and now

go in peace incidentally my friend when

you next come here you need not go

through the garden in the back this door

is never locked for

And for some of

you, I just want you to know that the

door of the Lord is open because you

come in here and you run out the

back. Can I tell

you, some of you are so

fixated on things that have happened in

your life and you're making full-blown

decisions. You're claiming that you're

living for the Lord. And the truth of

the matter is that you find yourself in

a place where you're kind of living for

the Lord, but you're living more trying

to prove people wrong or in fear of

people or something in your life. And

can I just tell you the only antidote in

freedom is that there's real repentance

in the house. Real repentance. I'm never

going to preach a sermon that's good

enough to just absolutely wreck your

life and change it and keep you there

forever. You can do more in a prayer

closet for 10 minutes than I can do up

here.

We've got to be a people that are on our

face saying, "God, I want to surrender

to you. These things that have been just

determining the direction of my life

that have quite honestly been anything

but you. God, I've been harboring hatred

towards this person. God, I have an

inability to forgive people. But man, do

I want forgiveness for myself. Father,

would you set me

free?" And so, this altar's open, and

God, would you do it?

God, I am uninterested in playing a

Christian. I'm interested in being

one. And Lord, would we be a

people? Would we be a church that is

more concerned with our own sin than we

are the sin of other

people?

Would we stop being bride

bashers and fall on our face realizing

that we're a part of the

problem and get fully right with you,

fully free in

you, of people that are marked by

forgiveness in the way that we

distribute grace to other people in the

way that you've distributed it to us.

Would we resist being proud? And would

we find ourselves at a place of humility

where we forgive those individuals in

our life that we feel like have

inconvenienced us or wronged us that we

would come to recognize there's passions

that wage war within us. And if we've

even got a percentage point of wrong,

Father, would we own

it and fall at your feet of

grace? Lord, we love you. We praise you

and we thank you. We ask this in Jesus

name. Amen.