Sermon Central
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Come Near To God Series
Contributed by Brady Boyd on Jul 2, 2020 (message contributor)
Summary: The lion feasts on the good things we neglect. Neglect our marriage and the lion will feast on it. Neglect our children and the lion will feast on them. Neglect our finances and the lion will feast on it.
James 4 – Walk This Way
Come Near to God
July 12, 2020
James 4:7-10 NIV
Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.
Submit yourselves to God. Resist the Devil.
1 Peter 5:8-9 NIV
Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 9 Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings.
The lion feasts on the good things we neglect.
Neglect our marriage and the lion will feast on it.
Neglect our children and the lion will feast on them.
Neglect our finances and the lion will feast on it.
Staying alert is most of the battle.
Come near to God
Worship is warfare.
Worship is a personal decision.
I decide to lift my voice.
I decide to raise my hands.
I decide to clap my hands.
I decide to bow down and worship.
Worship is a prophetic announcement
Psalm 89:1-2 NIV
“I will sing of the Lord's great love forever; with my mouth I will make your faithfulness known through all generations. 2 I will declare that your love stands firm forever, that you established your faithfulness in heaven itself.”
• It will not always be this way. One day, all things will be made new.
• Jesus is on the throne right now. The world will pass away but the kingdom of Jesus will have no end
Worship allows us to sing about the morning while living at midnight.
We worship what we welcome.
When we welcome the work of the Holy Spirit into our lives, we get Jesus. We choose a better way.
Come, Holy Spirit!
v.10 - Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.
Humility is trust.
Many of us are trying to manipulate God to get more from Him, instead of just trusting Him with our worship.
God’s not a formula to figure out, but a God who can be trusted.
“Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7 but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death — even death on a cross! 9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
The cross was the ultimate surrender.
