POWER OF SUBMISSION
Rom 6:12-16
12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.
13 Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.
15 What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.
16 Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?
The Living Bible
Rom 6:13-16
3 Do not let any part of your bodies become tools of wickedness, to be used for sinning; but give yourselves completely to God-every part of you-for you are back from death and you want to be tools in the hands of God, to be used for his good purposes. 14 Sin need never again be your master, for now you are no longer tied to the law where sin enslaves you, but you are free under God's favor and mercy.
15 Does this mean that now we can go ahead and sin and not worry about it? (For our salvation does not depend on keeping the law but on receiving God's grace!) Of course not!
16 Don't you realize that you can choose your own master? You can choose sin (with death) or else obedience (with acquittal). The one to whom you offer yourself-he will take you and be your master, and you will be his slave.
James 4:1-10
1 From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?
2 Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.
3 Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.
4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye 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.
5 Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy?
6 But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.
7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
8 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.
9 Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.
10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.
I: Introduction:
A. A minister received a Christmas card with a note in it from a lady in his congregation. In the card she compared him to Billy Graham. She finished by saying, “I think you are one of the great preachers of all time.
a. Later, he showed the note to his wife, and she asked, “who is the woman”?
1. The preacher replied, ‘She is a very intelligent woman in the congregation who loves great preaching.”
1a. He then asked his wife, “How many great preachers do you suppose
there really are in the world.”?
His wife replied, “One less than you think.”
The following is from a song entitled “Gotta Serve Somebody”, and apparently, Bob Dylan may have been reading from the book of James when he wrote this.
You may be an ambassador to England or France,
You may like to gamble, you might like to dance,
You may be the heavyweight champion of the world,
You may be a socialite with a long string of pearls
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You’re gonna have to serve somebody,
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody.
A bishop was invited to dinner. During the meal he was astonished to hear the younger daughter state that a person must be very brave to go to church these days. “Why do you say that?” asked the bishop.
“Because,” she answered, “I heard Dad tell Mom last Sunday that there was a big shot in the pulpit, the canon was in the vestry, the choir murdered the anthem, and the organist drowned everybody!”
World War II had ended. On September 2, 1945 General Douglas MacArthur spoke to a waiting world from the Battleship Missouri anchored in Tokyo Bay, “Today the guns are silent...the skies no longer rain death...the seas bear only commerce...men everywhere walk upright in the sunlight. The entire world is quietly at peace....”
That long war cost sixty million lives, and an estimated $1 trillion. It came only one generation after what President Woodrow Wilson called “the war to end all wars.” Since World War II we have been engaged in Korea and Viet Nam, Iraq twice, not to speak of limited wars, political assassinations, personal revolts, rebellions and social revolutions.
The history of the world is a war history. James brings it even closer home when he makes it clear that our personal stories are war stories as well, “What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you?” (v.1). What a penetrating question! Why can’t we get along? Why do we rub each other the wrong way?
We have problems with people and problems with God, and James addresses the reasons in the first five verses. The first reason for our fighting and quarreling is “desires that battle within you.” Abrasive words and abusive actions are expressed to one another because we are not a peace within ourselves. So we take it out on one another.
The word for “fights” is also translated “war” and means a continuing state of hostility. “Quarrels” are outbursts of active animosity. We tend to think that peace is our natural state, and that conflict is unnatural. The reverse is actually true.
We have constant battles because of our “desires” or passions. Lust for power, popularity, prestige and pleasure create strife.
You know, it is so easy to blame others for that which rips and tears at the fabric of human relationships. Turn to someone and say, “It’s all your fault.” We don’t need much practice at that.
1. You and I might work hard to find external circumstances which we can blame.
2. But the truth of the matter is, as James tells us, we need to look within ourselves for the source of conflict.
3. You and I need to be very honest with ourselves.
4. We may think of ourselves as godly persons, followers of Jesus Christ and we are, but at the same time, deep within each of us is that “old man” that dark and selfish side.
5. Selfishness, when it is observed in another, is so obvious and ugly
6. But selfishness, that is malignant within us, can be neatly surrounded with rationalizations, excuses and even spiritual blindness.
C. James describes us as people who want something, but don’t get it, and therefore we are unhappy.
1. We therefore become restless people, discontented, driven by pleasure.
2. And the more we are driven by the pleasure principle the more likely we will be participants in quarreling and fighting.
b. Pride means to act arrogantly; a high opinion of one’s worth,
self conceit.
1. One man said, “Pride is the idolatrous worship of self, is the national
religion of hell.”
B. God has some explicit things to say about pride:
a. Proverbs 6:16 it mentions seven things God hates:
1. The very first listed in verse 17 is, “A proud look:”
1b. The writer of Proverbs puts pride ahead of murder, and lying:
b. Why does God hate pride:
1. Pride promotes self-sufficiency, rather than admitting we need God:
c. Another reason God hates pride is because it has the capability of destroying our lives:
1. Prov 16:18: Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before
a fall. NIV
2. Uzziah was 16 years old, when he became king of Judah: 2 Chron 26
1b. Scripture says, “he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord,
and as long as he sought God, he prospered:”
2b. And God helped him against all the enemies of Judah, and God
strengthened him:
His name became great and his fame reached unto Egypt:
3b. Then something happen, “after Uzziah became powerful, his pride
led to his downfall.”
He entered the temple to burn incense upon the altar which was against the Law of God:
The priest of the temple, 80 of them withstood him and he became angry with the preachers:
And while he was berating and rebuking the preachers for he was king:
God smote him with leprosy in the forehead, and Uzziah lost his position as king:
N> His pride destroyed him:
C. James said, “God resisteth the proud,” James 4:6
a. Resist means “To Oppose:”
1. Why would God oppose the proud:
1c. Was it not Lucifer, the morning star of heaven that said:
I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:
I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. Isa 14:13-14
As good warriors, we Christians are supposed to know our enemy and all his evil schemes; the best way to do this is by looking at what the Bible says. Knowing your enemy is winning half the battle. So,what does our warfare manual (the Bible) have to say concerning spiritual warfare?
• North Americans seldom believe in a literal devil anymore. Researcher George Barna found that only 40% of Americans believe that Satan is a living being. It is little better in the church, where 69% of Catholics and 65% of Protestants believe the notion of Satan is only symbolic of evil.
• If Satan is not an actual person, then we have little use at all for the Bible, for God's Word centers around an ongoing conflict between God and Lucifer.
• Mankind became involved in this conflict in the Garden of Eden when he became the unwitting pawn of the devil's revenge on God. Satan had a choice to serve God and refused; he is jealous of mankind’s choice – and our chance to repent – and wants to insure that we refuse also!
• The conflict recklessly rampages through man’s history. Satan was successful in leading Adam and Eve into sin, but God intervened in a redemptive act and spoke this promise:
We are seeing these things happening all around us.
These spiritual attacks are not something new however.
All through the gospels we read of spiritual attacks causing some people to act like wild animals, to kill others, & even try to kill themselves.
That’s not surprising since we know that the thief has come to steal, kill, & destroy!
I have witnessed spiritual attacks against people in this city, against this church, and against my family.
This church has been attacked with spirits that try to come in here & stop our worship & our praise. Seems like every time, this church starts getting a breakthrough the devil is going to use someone to try and stop what God is trying to do.
Luke 9:38-42
And, behold, a man of the company cried out, saying, Master, I beseech thee, look upon my son: for he is mine only child.39 And, lo, a spirit taketh him, and he suddenly crieth out; and it teareth him that he foameth again, and bruising him hardly departeth from him.40 And I besought thy disciples to cast him out; and they could not41 And Jesus answering said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you, and suffer you? Bring thy son hither.42 And as he was yet a coming, the devil threw him down, and tare him. And Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, and healed the child, and delivered him again to his father.
• The devil’s devices include oppression, obsession & possession. Judas exemplified all 3: obsessed with money, possessed by satan, & oppressed to commit suicide. Oppression causes depression, low self esteem, giving up, - controls people to keep out hope & desire to fight on – therefore affecting faith.
Obsess: to occupy somebody’s thoughts constantly and exclusively; to think or worry about something constantly and compulsively; preoccupy, grip, consume, fixate; an idea or feeling that completely occupies the mind; uncontrolled idea or emotion;
• Obsession is running rampant in our society today. Many different things are vexing the souls of people. A vexation that controls us to obey in doing, saying & thinking things is obsession. (‘I can’t live without it’). 2 Cor.10:4-5 A strong hold, gripping control over us, forcing us to obey.
Oppression causes pain, fear, tears & crying, control by the cruelty of others, hatred, no comfort, a bondage needing deliverance – you can’t set yourself free from oppression – you need help.
Oppressive: 1. imposing a harsh or cruel form of domination an oppressive regime; 2. highly stressful: exerting a worrying, troubling, or burdensome pressure on somebody (cruel, domineering, tyrannical, repressive, unfair, overbearing, unjust, harsh).
• This is a necessary subject & we present it in all seriousness tonight for your education. Church is no toy or game or platform for the proud to feel important leading others. We want to reveal our enemy naked & weak before God to understand our privilege in being called to be God’s children. Mark 3:22-30 this world doesn’t know the power in the true church & will condemn us wrongfully.
• Possess means to own or be in control (direct influences) of something/one; claim something as your own personal property. To be devil possessed is to be totally controlled housing a devil. Since the devil hates God & His people, signs of possession are obvious by out of control, ungodly behavior meaning both physical actions & verbal assault. Discerning devils is not always easy.
1. God shows us that witchcraft, sorcery, spells, divination and magic are evil. He hates those practices because they blind us to His loving ways, then turn our hearts to a deceptive quest for self-empowerment and deadly thrills. Harry Potter's world may be fictional, but the timeless pagan practices it promotes are real and deadly. Well aware that the final result is spiritual bondage and oppression, He warns us:
"There shall not be found among you anyone who... practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. For all who do these things are an abomination to the Lord..." Deuteronomy 18:9-12
2. Demonic movies and demonic reading’s like Harry Potter and Twilight and such like the foundation in fantasy, not reality, doesn't diminish its power to change beliefs and values. Imaginary (or virtual) experiences and well-written fantasies can affect the mind and memories as much, if not more, than actual experiences.[3] Designed to stir feelings and produce strong emotional responses, a well-planned myth with likeable characters can be far more memorable than the less exciting daily reality -- especially when reinforced through books, toys and games as well as movies.
I do not understand some of you parents that allow your kids to watch and to read that kind of garbage, and you wonder why your children are battling spirits of rebellion, spirits of lust, and they are having nightmares in the middle of the night.
"But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward." Jeremiah 7:24
3. Each occult image and suggestion prompts the audience to feel more at home in this setting. Children identify with their favorite characters and learn to see wizards and witches from a popular peer perspective rather than from God's perspective. Those who sense that the occult world is evil face a choice: Resist peer pressure or rationalize their imagined participation in Harry's supernatural adventures.
The second choice may quiet the nagging doubts, but rationalizing evil and justifying sin will sear the conscience and shift the child's perception of values from God's perspective to a more "comfortable" cultural adaptation. Even Christian children can easily learn to conform truth to multicultural ideals and turn God's values upside down - just as did God's people in Old Testament days:
"But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward
N> Four times the morning star exalts himself against God, his creator:
• Pride is a characteristic of the serpent:
II: James said, “Submit yourselves therefore to God.”
A. The captain of the ship looked into the dark night and saw lights in the distance.
a. Immediately he told his signalman to send a message" "Alter your course 10 degrees south."
1. Promptly a return message was received: "Alter your course 10 degrees north."
b. The captain was angered; his command had been ignored.
1. So he sent a second message: "Alter your course 10 degrees south--I am the captain!"
2. Soon another message was received: "Alter your course 10 degrees north--I am seaman third class Jones."
3. Immediately the captain sent a third message, knowing the fear it would evoke: "Alter your course 10 degrees south--I am a battleship."
4. Then the reply came "Alter your course 10 degrees north--I am a lighthouse."
N> In the midst of our dark and foggy times, all sorts of voices are shouting
orders into the night, telling us what to do, how to adjust our lives.
• Out of the darkness, one voice signals something quite opposite to the rest--something almost absurd.
• But the voice happens to be the Light of the World, and we ignore it at our own peril.
B. The word submit, is a military term that means "get into your proper rank."
a. When a buck private acts like the general, there is going to be trouble!
1. Unconditional submission is the only way to complete victory in my life:
b. Not surrender, surrender is not voluntary, submission is:
1. You only surrender when you have no other option:
1a. Japan surrendered, but it was after they had no other choice:
c. Submission is when you have the power to do what you want but you
willing submit to the will of God in your life:
• When the soldiers came for Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus asked, who do you look for, and they said Jesus:
• He said, “I am he,” and they fell backwards to the ground:
• Jesus told Simon Peter, “Do you not know I have the power to call ten legions of angels and they will deliver me:”
N> Jesus had the power to stop what was happening, but he willingly
Submitted to the will of the Father:
2. And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
Phil 2:8
d. By submitting to the Lord, I place myself in proper rank, and I’m admitting I can’t do this on my own:
1. God told Isaiah: I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble,
and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. Isa 57:15
1b. Contrite means crushed or broken / Humble means, “abase”
Abase means to “bring down, or lower:”
N> God is saying, I dwell with the crushed and lowly:
• He doesn’t mean poor, but in spirit, those who know they are nothing with Him and totally dependent on HIM:
e. Once you submit to the will of God, God now abides with me and now I have the strength to “RESIST,” the devil:
N> He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say of the Lord, "He is my refuge
and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust."
Surely he will save you from the fowler's snare
and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with his feathers,
and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your
shield and rampart. NIV Ps 91:1-4
N> Submission to the Lord, makes Him my refuge and fortress:
2. Now James says, “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you:”
1b. Resist means to “Stand in opposition against:”
1b. I don’t have the strength to resist [oppose] the devil on my own,
he is far greater than I:
3. I can only resist him when I have submitted to a power that is
greater than he, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ:
1a. How can I stand in opposition against the enemy of my soul:
N> By submitting to the will of God, your enemy will flee from you:
• Only uncompromised submission will bring totally victory in my life:
WE NEED TO PUT THE DEVIL ON THE RUN!!!!
