Right Way, Wrong Way // Nick Serban III

Right Way, Wrong Way __ Nick Serban III

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

james, god, lord, speaking, day, life, mourn, deal, year, jealousy, run, lane, moments, pray, church, roy, hear, quarrels, morning, team

It's football season and I figured I'd start off with a oldie but goodie story about football and about how, how there was a story back from from in the day in 1929. On January 1, there was a man named Roy Roy regal. He went to the Rose Bowl, and in the Rose Bowl that year was the UCLA Bruins, and it was the Georgia Tech was playing and I know some of your Georgia Tech fans and there may have been I don't think there's probably going to UCLA fans here. But maybe there is it's okay. If you aren't we're not we're not drawing a line in the sand this morning. Okay, we're all Christians, and we believe in the Lord and we're on his team. Amen. And but on this particular day, he was on the field. And he was he was there on the field and he recovered a fumble. The ball was fumbled. And I'm very aware maybe I need to give some direction on terminology. But that means when when you're on defense and the other team is on offense, and the offense drops the ball and it's still in play. That means that the fumble and one of the teams will recover it on that day. Rory Regal, say that few times real quick Roy Regal, he, he was in a place where he picked the ball up. And he started the run towards the end line. And the place is going crazy. Can you just imagine I mean 10s of 1000s of people in the stadium. And they're just they're there. They're going ballistic. And the and he was like, wow, you know, I'm running. And what happened was when he picked the ball up, he he's he started the run in the right direction. But somehow he got hit along along the way. And his whole body got turned around and he didn't realize his head was down. He was just focused, I'm just gonna run and, and the story goes on. It's true story I didn't look it up online, is that he ran all the way down to the endzone where he would score a touchdown for the other team and his own teammates finally stopped him tackled him like at the one yard line. And the story goes on that they were unable to really recover from that moment, they had to punt the ball. And then halftime came. Well, Royal regal was like a captain on the team. He was like in charge. He was like, you know, the rah rah guy, you know, we can do this, come on, you know, and, and so he's in the, he's in the locker room during halftime. And it's a little quiet. It's a little quiet, as you can imagine, you know, it's kind of like, you know, we just had our star player, run the ball, you know, 50 yards for the other team. And luckily, he stopped and they didn't, they didn't score a touchdown right away. But you know, what are you going to do? And so he's, he's lamenting, and he's just like, This is crazy. He's almost he's almost The story goes that he's almost weeping during this time. And you know, groan, football, man, you know, weeping college football. And so the coach is trying to give him a pep pep talk, you know, Hey, guys, you know, we got this, you're gonna get this. And he's talking through different things. And then he says these words, and the words that came out of his mouth next, were these. The same team that started the first half is gonna start the second half. And Roy heard that, because he thought he was done I ever you ever you, have you ever done something, and you just think like, I could never, like show my face again. You know, I don't want to show up here, you know, how can I, you know, ever be in this moment. And sure enough, the whole team leaves and here's Roy regels, weeping in the corner. And he's saying, Coach, I can't go out there. I can't do this. You know, it just not going to happen. And the coach was, was insistent, insistent that he would get up, he would pull himself together. And he would go back on the field and do what was right, and do what he knew how to do. And sure enough, he went out there. And the rest of the story is the in history is that for a Roy regels himself. In fact, you can call him wrong way regal. That's that's how he was termed in the newspaper. Wrong way Regal is that he went out and historian say that he played the most offensive game of the defensive, most offensive half that he's ever played in his life for the next 30 minutes there on the field. And I thought of the story. And obviously, it's the beginning of the seasons. And I just thought for the next few moments that we would administer out of the book of James, but in the context of Have we ever found yours? Have you ever found yourself on the wrong pathway? Or the wrong way, as opposed to going the right way? Have you ever found Have you ever come to a place where you know, you knew what the right why was Roy regels knew what the right way was to run? And yet he found himself running the wrong direction. And what did it take for him to get back on track? Somebody had to come alongside of them. Somebody, somebody had to pull them down, I think that I think they actually tackled him during this time, like you're going the wrong way. And yet, oftentimes, when people tell us we're going the wrong way, or even insinuates, that you may be on me, you know, I love when I type in it into my maps in Apple Maps, or whatever it is that they gave me three different ways, usually three, three different ways to get there. You know, one way, here's your fastest route, and it's gonna take you 60 minutes to get there. Here's your second route, it's going to take you 63 minutes. And here's this one other route, it's gonna take you have 95 minutes, you know, it's kind of like, well, I don't know, when I go 95 minutes, you know, why would I want to go here? Scripture gives us great clarity on directions that we should walk. The Word of God gives us great direction. And when we're in when we're in ministries, when we're in churches, when we're here together, when we have moments like this, sometimes where we give direction, sometimes we just read the Word of God, and the Word of God never returns void. That means that I can be speaking something and it may kind of cut here, cut here, but it's, it's, it's gonna go somewhere, it's gonna land on on somewhere, the question we had to deal with in the place we had to deal with is where it lands. Is it a place that it's willing to receive? Is it willing to, you know, again, we'll type in which way to go. And it's kind of like, okay, and I'm going to take the hour and a half we're out versus the the 45 Minute route, as opposed to God, what route Do you want me to take? And oftentimes, it's a it's an easier, easier way. And let me just say this morning, that following the Lord, although sometimes difficult, although sometimes, although sometimes challenging. It's the greatest trip you could ever be on. And it's the right way. And it's the right purpose, and it's the right, right direction. I wanted to share two things this morning. Out of the Word of God, if you have your Bible, would you turn the book of James, James chapter four. James chapter four. And James, for going, I want to pull I want to kind of pull apart the first 10 verses that we can grow from anybody willing to grow this morning. Because none of us have arrived. You feel like you've arrived to want to challenge it in, in the love of Jesus, none of us have arrived. But we could grow, we can get on that right track. But here's, here's what it says what causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you, James is exposing our internal struggles. He's writing to the 12 tribes he's writing, it's kind of a buckshot, a spread. Instead of just one single rifle bullet, it's to hit the tribes that are scattered all over all around. And then James for he's speaking to our internal and our external struggles. And I do I do think and, again, it's arguable, but in one version, the Tennessee version, it says, what causes fights and quarrels amongst y'all. Alright. So he might have what country in him. And so, so it's it is, it is plural, not singular. It's not just you. But oftentimes in a body, oftentimes, in a family, it's not necessarily just one person's got the issue. It's that we've kind of we kind of, we kind of add to it, we kind of give our give our two cents to it, or we kind of maybe spur it on. Sometimes he's saying, you have issues, as we saying, He's saying to to the church, we have issues, but brings it back. He's dealing with the body of Christ, he's dealing with we as the body we all have ever heard the thing before, we have two eyes, two ears that we would see and we would hear twice as much as we the one mouth we have, that we that we talk. He's saying that and he's dealing with during this time, he's dealing with racism, he's dealing with jealousy. He's dealt with classism, sexism, hatred, discord, and gossip. And basically saying, Why can't y'all just get along? Why can't y'all just get along? You could very easy begin to explain objectively problems that were going on. But James brings us back to this one area, and we've we've ministered on this over the years, but it's we just need to continue to get this. He wants to speak Talk to us. He wants to speak to me, he wants to speak to you. Because we all have the power of life and death, even in our tongue. He is saying that you as an individual, you're at war. He's saying that all the public conflicts now get this. I mean, I mean, how dare James say this, he say in all the conflicts that you find yourself in, is a result of internal conflicts and problems you have with yourself. Welcome to full life this morning. In that great to hear, you know, in the words of the scholar, Taylor Swift, it's you, it's me, it's I. It's us. He's saying that individually, we're at war, James is saying, Christ followers shouldn't be this way. So there's tension. And you've seen tension before, you've seen conflict before, where quarrels take place, and tension is built up and difficulties come? One of the greatest factors, one of the greatest consistent denominators and all quarrels and arguments, just once again, to reiterate, is the word I, it's us is what I want. It's what I desire. It's what I demand. The question is, what are the issues at full life? But the questions for full life, in your, in your own self, or your business, at your home, with your kids, with your family? Now, I'm not gonna ask for a show of hands this morning. But I would, I would, I would surmise that somehow in the last year, all of us may have been in a in a situation where tension was high, maybe a conflict took place, maybe somebody didn't see things the way they you saw things. And if that has never happened to you, but what I want, I want you to stand because I want you to come to the front, and you're going to lay hands on every person that's in this room, that whatever you have, will will be dispelled on any anyone else. Because there's moments that we get tensors. One was that we have difficulties, there are moments that that are that, you know, how do I deal with this person is checking out here at the store? How do I deal with the person that's checking me out at the store? How do I deal with someone who doesn't, doesn't seemingly respect my time eating at nachos Mexican restaurant over here? You know, how do I how do I deal with it and bring salsa quick enough when it was when the sausages was empty, and they should have been replenished? Because I can go to Jay Alexander's down the road. And when my iced tea glasses, halfway, they replenish it right away. Why aren't all the restaurants this way? Why, and I'm kind of dumbing it down right now. But the end of the day is think of the corals that you've been in, whether it's someone near your love, or someone you're close to, versus, you know, some of the big, big things, the big, big moments, maybe we have a tendency to say, well, they have an issue, or they've got a they got a big thing going on in their lives. Maybe we can say, well, they're greedy, they're prideful, they're disappointing. They run their mouths, they talk too much. And maybe the reality is, the quarrel is is not their reality, or maybe it's your reality. Does anyone really want to have drama in our lives? is something we longed for. I mean, you know, what do they say, leave the drama for your mama, you know, type of deal? And, you know, but yet, how many, like how many like a good Broadway show? There we go, a good Broadway show? Good, you know, or we see a dramatic depiction of a play or whatever it is, and appreciate you watching these things. But, you know, I really don't love welcoming drama in my life. And yet every day, it probably happens. But what really happens is the decision I have to make of how I deal with the drama, or the stress or the tension. I could say, well, it's your issue, not my issue. But God's given us the ability to help work through and God's given us the ability to speak wisdom and love. It's your own passions that are at war within yourself. And whether you refuse to have or give grace, whether you refuse to have humility, whether you refuse to endure suffering. Obviously, I'm not I'm not encouraging anyone to be a doormat here in this church, but how do you deal with drama? How do you deal after someone has just cursed you out? How do you deal with the fact that you feel you were unjustly treated? How do you deal with that? Evil Lie someone gave you. And they said they didn't. But you know they did. And you go back and for anybody with me this morning, yeah, I speaking the right language here. I mean, this is life that we deal with on a on a, I went through Chick fil A God's gift to humanity the other day, and I got the wrong order when I drove away and I was like, I just didn't have the I didn't have the time to go back. It's kind of like I had to eat the sandwich they gave me and it wasn't a sandwich that I want it. I'll never go there again. I'm gonna get on Yelp and give them a bad bad description of their service. But when all comes down to it, what what am I willing to release? What am I willing to give up? James asked the question, what's going on in you? What's going on in you? What was going on in me with a Chick fil A thing? What was going on in the me in this? tenuous situation? What is going on in me? The Bible says that we should just absorb offense. Can you imagine that? I mean, that is not the world that we live in. Is it to absorb offense? If you're a Christian, just take it. Yes, take it. And none of us ever want to hear that. Because the world we live in, we gotta get back. You do to me, I do it to you. Shame on me once, you know. I'm gonna get you next time. None of us ever want to hear this. I've always I've often used thanks something I've our boys learned growing up. And I'll say still today. Choose to lose when you can win. Choose to lose when you can when Jesus did. I mean, he ultimately won. But he could have called 10,000 angels when he hung on a cross dying for you and for me. But he chose to go through the process he chose to absorb the offense. James for to you desire, but you do not have. So you kill you covet, but you cannot get what you want. So you quarrel and fight. As long as you know that. I didn't want you to know that. The James is not specifically speaking that, you know, he's speaking to a bunch of murderers. But how many times have we been so disappointed, and are so challenged in our spirits that we've said something, or we've done something to affect the reputation of someone else. But it was part of our prayer request. Right? Shouldn't be that shouldn't shouldn't be that big of a deal. There's a there's a story, a Jewish story from a rabbi about a woman who visited him and confess to spreading falsehoods, and confessed to sharing things about another person. And the rabbi gave her two tasks. So she received what he had to say. And the first task was to take feathers from a pillow and put one of the feathers from the pillow at the doors step of every home in the village. So he went, she went out and got a pillow, opened it up. And there were these beautiful down down feathers. After doing that, she returned to the rabbi and said, What's the second test? The rabbi said, go and gather up all the feathers from each of the houses that you placed it on the doorstep. She said about Rabbi that's impossible. The woman objected. The witness spread them far and wide. Indeed, it has to the rabbi to gather those feathers is as impossible as taking back the harsh words. You have spoken. You would do well to remember that before you speak in the future. But isn't it in life that we want to cut? We want to tear? I'd be good the day. I shouldn't. Yeah. I am human just like you. The other day I called my dad about something. And God bless him. And we're talking on the phone. I don't know if he was at Waffle House or what but I remember talking to him and I said something that wasn't very, very kind and about about someone something. And you know what he did? He absolutely ignored me. He didn't he didn't have any response to what I said. And I was waiting for him to you know, come on, let's let's just turn this thing together right now. Come on. You know what I'm saying is right. You know what, at the end whether it was right or wrong when I was saying what I was saying was wrong. But what would have been right what I was thinking or was feeling. But at the end of the day, we gotta have people in our lives willing to say, You know what, no, stop, turn around, run the right way, get on the right pathway. Sometimes we simply were killing people with our words. Because we're so unhappy with ourselves. We're so unhappy with, you know, the way we feel about ourselves, the way we think about ourselves the way that maybe we're being treated somewhere. And so oftentimes, if you're here the statement before hurt people, people it's impossible to be peaceful and content with ourselves when there is jealousy at work within us. And at some point, that was a holiday, can you hear it? Some point, at some point in our lives, and some at some point in our hearts, we have to come to grips with. This is where we are right now. And I can tell you what, I'm gonna go back just just kind of rewind to worship today, you come to the place, that God I'm going to praise you, no matter what's in my bank account. I'm going to praise you, no matter how I feel. I'm going to praise you, no matter if you know, I got a bad report. I'm going to praise you. You know whether this happened and where I'm at you praise him where you're at and watch the ceilings break. Thank you for where you're at, be grateful for where we are at. James four says you do not have because you do not ask. Verse three, when you ask you do not receive because you ask with the wrong motives that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. You do not have because you do not asks, James is pushing the 12 tribes. He's pushing for life. He's pushing me to say you know what? Live your life everyday unto the Lord. Spend time before the Father asked him to lead ask him to direct and don't just think you know what? I'm God's. I'm God's special child, which you probably are all right. But when it comes down to it, you have not because you ask not go before Him in prayer. Watch what devotions do in your life. Watch what a relationship does in your life, as opposed to just happenstance something happens, but you go before him, when you ask you do not receive because you ask for the wrong motives that you may spend what you get on your pleasures, like a preach, that can be that can be a topic on its own. It's not gonna be a topic on its own today, but the end of the day is are your motives right? Are your motives right? You know, Lord, and I'm sure there's one or two that have prayed Lord helped me win the help me win the lottery. And, Lord, I promise I'll tie off it and think of all the good all the good things I can do. Ah, I'll get 15% Lord, and you're and you're trying to negotiate with God. In these moments, I tell you what, be thankful for what you have and watch what Hill put before you. And then be thankful for that and keep going and keep going and keep going. James identifies internal and external issues, the things that are inside, and the things that are done outwardly think of every person you have had conflict with. Outside of physical blatant abuse, and look back at where did you get there? How many of our conflicts are are built our inability to extend grace, understanding, compassion, forgiveness, humility. And I know we've talked into myself this morning, even when I talked to my dad a few weeks ago, I was lacking in some understanding, as lacking compassion. lacking in some forgiveness pieces, and humility. Jealousy is one of the worst problems that we will struggle with in our lives. I know many of you maybe immediately, and I'm not a mind reader by any stretch of the imagination, but many of you will say, Oh, no, Pastor, I am not the jealous type. But if you dig deep this morning, of why you feel the way you feel, or why you thought what you thought. Oftentimes, it connects back to the area of jealousy. You know, somebody asked me the day, I love when people ask me, how big is your church? How big how many, you're running it amongst pastors, how many you're running like it? It's kind of like, ah, you know, do I get to count online, you know, throughout about Instagram posts, you know, and, and when it comes down to it, I often say this, you know what? I said if if there were 300 people there, I'd love to see 400 Because we had this noncontingent tendinous in our lives, you got one dog, you want another one, I don't want another one. But you know, you may, maybe that's you, you got two goats, you want four, you know, you got one car, you want to you want another one, you want a newer one, you want a better one. And that's just that's just kind of, from from the from the get go. There's this mindset, that we can never be content with what we have and here's James addressing these things. Go before the Father, speak to him, have grace, have understanding, have compassion, have forgiveness, have humility, jealousies, again, is one of the worst problems. We know from the from the first book of the Bible with Cain and Abel, we spoke about last week as we receive coming, how many endured communion last week, by the way? Anybody? Three of you great, we may do it again. Okay for for for the three of you. But from the from the get go, Cain and Abel, you know, there was jealousy that took place and and there was murder that took place. James for fourth argot. Now we're getting hard here. Okay. You adulterous people. Don't you know that friendship with the world means enmity, which means the state of feeling or being actively opposed or hostile to someone or something against God. Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Again, when he says you adulterous people, we're not necessarily speaking to the act of adultery that we you may think of initially, but it's about even giving up and turning away from the relationship you have with God, of what what he's done for you, and you're finding feelings and success with the world. James is not saying I want to make this clear that we should not care for the world. And I think honestly, that this is a tough message. But the toughness of this, and I know it can be tough anywhere. But I think it's even so much tougher, living in Nashville, Tennessee area in the suburbs of Nashville. And we've dealt with it for for 2025 years, since we've moved down here, of you know, what is right, what is wrong, you know, I'm, I'm bringing the cross over, I can, I can do this, I want to make an impact here. And that's not where I'm going today. But I just want you to hear me when things are pure before the Lord when we have of right motives in our hearts. When we say You know what, I'm not going to submit the things of the world. But I'm going to lift him higher. It's going to be very clear, very No. And one thing I love about this gentleman here at the church, his name is Matt Rogers. And he happens to be the voice the PA announcer for the Tennessee Titans. And he's in and out. I think there's an away game today. But he lets it be known. I mean, it is it is clear, you can check his Facebook, you can check to check his Instagram, he is sold out in love with Jesus. Bottom line period. And sure he's, uh, you know, announcing, you know, this is this is sponsored by Bush, you know, and all these things, but at the end of the day, he's saying, You know what, I am going to serve the Lord. As for me and my house, I will serve the Lord. And the question that James is posing here in this moment is, you know, again, you adulterous people, he's saying, You guys are cheating on God, you are cheating on the relationship that you said that you want it with him. Your worship is not as passionate as it should be. You're giving you're withholding the things that you said you would do from the beginning when you're on fire, you know, and it was like, you know, here we go. Here pulling back. And now you are basically embracing how the world does things. You're embracing the slime Enos, you're embracing the harshness and the brashness. And we're kind of entering into, I may go off topic here for just a moment, just bear with me. But you know, we're going to enter in one year, one year from November, we're going to be back into this thing called the presidential elections. And we saw what happened at the last presidential elections and the things that we're even dealing with today with the presidential elections. But is it is it God saying, you know, you need to be the voice for this candidate or you need to be the source of this candidate, you know, and we're just stirring things up and no longer are we believers is coming but we got Democrat believers and Republican, you know, believers and, you know, these pro life believers and these non pro life believers are you know, I there's some dichotomies there, even coming out of my mouth. Can you hear what I'm saying this morning, and when it comes down to it, but the world says you need to let people know these things, but are you letting them know that you are a believer in Christ? They are following me living Savior? Are you letting them know by your actions of worshipping Him? Are you letting them know that when you're sitting in a McDonald's you know what you're gonna pray for that food no matter who sees you Who doesn't see you? And I recommend you pray for McDonald's. Okay? I recommend in these moments in these times that we are all about you know what it's about the Lord post scriptures out there because the word never returns void. God relishing is his voice and your voice that you say that I did say that. And watch what God will do. We're more amped up about what God's doing amongst the church, what God's doing amongst our community. I don't know if you got this morning, we're helping plant another church. Our third church, we help plan. We have sent out dozens of missionaries around the world. There's people coming to the Lord and salvation right now. And you don't necessarily see that. So that's why we say You know what, let's be faithful for what God has put in our hands. As the faithful as we give an offering. Let's be faithful as we give in tithes and offerings. Let's be faithful as we serve, we got OCC coming up in a few weeks. We're doing that. Right. Right. Was that on the screen? Operation Christmas Child? shoe boxes if you're not familiar with it, we I mean, we did very well. Last year, we we clicked a lot. Lord, help us do better this year. Right? Let's be part let's be part of what God's doing, that people are going to have salvation message through a shoebox of all places. The friendship of the world that we that he speaks of here, he's already defined as having passions and desires that you seek to obtain. A come on how do you how do you overcome some of these things, I mean, who doesn't want a nice car, who doesn't want a nice house who doesn't want a you know, a nice pair of sneakers who doesn't want you know, the nice of this nice, that nice, the other things, it really comes down to where is your heart? Where is your heart. Such a person counts only on themselves believing is up to them to get themselves ahead of others. And this is why James calls his readers, unfaithful creatures, adulterers, they are living as if they have been abandoned by their Heavenly Father, as if he isn't there isn't good, and able to transform them and love them in the midst of their lives here. But warning is the same as Jesus words about the impossibility of serving two masters, and Matthew six, for difficult to serve two masters. I've heard this as an illustration, I won't, I won't unpack it. But think about marriage and being married to more than one wife. I'll just leave it there. Or, you know, having to watch or do husbands. Embracing worldly stuff, is hostility with God. Whoever wishes to be a friend with the world ultimately chooses to be hostile. Here's what he's saying. go the right way. And not the wrong way. Get in the right lane, I have this. I have a vehicle that it kind of drives by itself. It's not a Tesla, but it's got this it's got this thing in it that it'll tell you when it's ready. And it'll stay in the lane on the highway all by itself. It's it's it's pretty cool. And and not only to stay stay stay in the lane, but it say I put it on 65 or whatever the speed limit is 7070 miles an hour. And if there's a car in front of you is of car in the lane, it won't automatically switch lanes, it only go I tell it ahead of time, 10 feet, 20 feet or 30 feet behind the car. And so the car wall, the vehicle will just slow down to stay in the right lane, as opposed to, you know, veering out or you know, ramming into the car in front of it. And I was thinking about the idea of the lanes that were in how important it is, you know, how do you stay in the right lane while you program it for the Word of God? A program I had to say, you know I'm comfortable at 20 feet behind the car in front of me. And and so when we take the word of God that we established earlier does not return void. We're able to set up the guardrails, we're able to set up the direction we're able to set up that we are in the right lane versus wrong lanes. Revelation 315 says I know your deeds that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish you were either one or the other. So because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold. I am about to spit you out of my mouth James is saying, if you're friendly with the worldly things if you're living on both sides if you're switching lanes, and switching directions, again, this is hard to hear. But we're an enemy of God. But then somehow, somehow when things get tough, we're gonna pull the we're gonna pull the flag out, Lord, I need your help right now. But he's saying right now, you know what? Praise look good on you this morning. Worship look good on you this morning. And that you wouldn't just make him, Lord on Sunday. And not Lord on Monday. Look Within number two course correction, James for five. Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he is that he that he jealousy longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us. But he gives us more grace. That is why scripture says God opposes the proud. But shows favor to the humble. This is all part of the course correction. Again, you've kind of heard the first chapter, you know, these are the these are the difficult things James is saying. But here you go. This is how you fix it. This is how you stay in the right lane. And he ends with the idea of humility. God opposes the proud. We proud people do they live on both sides of the fence. They're prideful. They're gonna have their way and not his way. prideful people basically say, I'm steering the ship here. I'm running the ship. It's gonna go my way or no way at all. And James is telling us how to get back in the right lane. Start by posturing ourselves, of all things with a spirit of humility, a spirit of receiving a spirit of you know what, it's not about my rights. It's about God's rights. God will not judge you for having humility, he says, You're not going to be favorite to you. I want to look upon that. And I want to receive that I'm going to embrace that on you. So often, we make excuses for the things that that we so easily fall into. So we're so easily entangled to. And I know there's a big movement out there. And I think it's a great movement. I don't speak one negative thing about it. But I just want to challenge you in the context of deliverance and freedom ministry. And we believe in deliverance and freedom ministry here full life, I want to, I want you to know I'm with the cameras and now you can quote me on this. But I'm gonna tell you what, it takes self discipline as well. We can cast out of you what's in you, we can believe for total turnaround in your life. But if you choose to live like the devil, you choose to hang out with those who live like the devil. You choose to be in this adulterous world and not look to God. And you look to others, I tell you what, we can cast out all day long, you come back every Sunday morning or every Wednesday night. But when it comes down to it, you make the choice. We can speak in the name of Jesus, it comes out in the name of Jesus, the generational curses are broken, the anger is broken, the addiction is broken. But when all comes down to it, there's also something called self discipline that we choose, you know, I'm going to walk the right way how do you walk the right way? Then you get some people on your side to turn your round when you're going the wrong way and let's go the right way, wrong way Regal, amen. In the end, these moments come near to God and He will come near to you wash your hands you sinners and purify and again doesn't that kind of hurt sometimes they just call me a sinner you know, wash your hands you sinners and purify your hearts you double minded. I mean, just jam it to them. Right? Grieve mourn and well change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom Humble yourself before the Lord and He will lift you up something we've we've we've kind of missed a little bit in the American church. And maybe it's it's been over the years. Maybe it's because people have gotten caught up with a far extended emotionalism that sometimes you know, you know, God created us as emotional people. Do you know it's okay to cry? Do you know it's okay to well? Do you know it's okay to have emotions? And yet, oftentimes, we're just you know, we're stoic. You know, it's it's kind of like, you know, we're holy, sophisticated. That's the word I've come up with, you know, glory to God, you know, and everything's great inside you but but but inside of you James is talking to us a man you got some you got some issues, all right. And nobody I'm not talking about anybody here. We're talking about other churches all right, but I mean full life I mean we're full of life hallelujah. But if the shoe fits, here we are, you know, holy sophistication. Come near to God and He will come near to you wash your hands you sinners and purify your hearts, you double minded grieve, mourn Well, great. He's saying, Listen, you want to get right before the Lord. You should be grieving and mourning of the sin that you have allowed in your life. Now, now, come on. God can forgive anything. God does forgive everything. He's already forgiven for what you're about, you're about ready to do because of the cross. But when it comes down to it, when we get into this routine of it doesn't matter what God thinks, you know, hey, you know, I just jumped over here and I did this. I didn't get hit by lightning. You know, Sunday mornings coming, hallelujah. Monday, boom has tried again. And things seem to be okay. Okay. Just a little further, you know, Sunday mornings, come on, let's come back here. Hallelujah. God saying you know what? Focus on me. James is saying you know what, grieve, mourn. And well, one of the, one of the craziest things communities. One of the craziest things. I shared it at our table on Wednesday, on Wednesday night, my pastor, mentor, my first five years of ministry, his name was Bill Kirk. And we were pornography walls in New York. And we're in a beautiful church, beautiful sanctuary, just just like this. And, and so every, every, pretty much three times a week, if not any day, I was there. I was doing youth ministry. I was doing music ministry. I was leading the choir. I was doing cantatas and we don't want to Qatada is like Easter and, yeah, I mean, all these things. We sent Jesus through the roof. I mean, it was it was amazing, you know, resurrection. And we had Mary riding on a donkey one year, for the Christmas Christmas story. Uh, why did that I don't know, with all liability. But we would gather to pray. And he asked me to pray with him. I mean, I don't know when the last time other than coming to church, you know, has prayed together. But he would say, Hey, let's go in this room, we're gonna pray in the sanctuary. And he come right to the front of the altar area. And he just plopped down face first. He had his Bible there. And for any pray for hour to three hours, and he just go before the Lord. And, and I would join him and, but he would be he would begin to weep. He will begin to wail like, you know, at first couple times, I'm like, everything, okay, you know, and he would, he would pray. And I remember that distinct distinctively. For the years I was there, and there was an open invitation every day. And read the beginning, you know, I'd go for the couple hours, you know, and then, and then just be quite frank, I admit it the other day, you know, it's kind of like, I got so much to do, I got so much to do. The thing is, I gotta get done, in order to be everything I'm supposed to be, per se. But I tell you what, the most important time that ever spent at that church was at the altar of that church, morning, wailing and grieving. And I would agree for others. There were times the Holy Spirit would come on me. And there will be groans and, and noises and things that came out of me that I wasn't even, I don't even know what I was necessarily praying for. Change your laughter to morning and your joy to gloom, humble yourself before the Lord and He will lift you up. How many want to get closer to God than we submit to Him? In conclusion, this morning will give you four takeaways that are going to be quick taking notes. Here the here's the practicality of getting getting here. The first is this. Wash your hands, these centers. This is an appeal to the outward lifestyle. Our hands represent our deeds, our hands represent that the things that we put them to, they must be cleansed, as we withdrawal from the evil things. For the purpose of things that Gospel before us. Cleanse your hands. This is repetitive language. This is a repentance language. And I've tried the model at times I know I've failed the time that I've become flustered. I've said this many times over the years. Hey, if you've got nothing to pray for, pray for more of God in your life. Come and find a place to pray. Come find a place to submit. And maybe there's some crime that takes place. Maybe there's some there's some there's some true mourning that takes place. Cleanse your hands. Secondly, purify your hearts. Here's a reference to our motives. What are your motives all about? Our emotions about just just going that much further your motive is about it's all about you. Or your motives about you know, your retirement your motors about you know, I gotta I gotta do this for me are the motors about your allegiance before the Lord and His throne, grieve mourn and well change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. That's I really do think and maybe maybe this is the the thing you'll take away from this morning. And I stood over here and I say, you know, we got our worship on Hallelujah. And then we're over here. We find a creeping over here. But when we ever hear what takes place between here and there, is there a genuine repentance? Is there a genuine place of saying you know what, Lord forgive me. I preached a message years ago was titled who switched the price tags. And some of you will remember there used to be a shop called Kmart here in the area. I remember Kmart. I mean, a good Blue Light Special at Kmart was always always special. And I And for those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about, Kmart was like a Walmart, but it was called Kmart. And they had these things called blue light specials in there. And you know, it would creep up on you this all sudden, you'd kind of see this blue light swirl and like like a police engine or a fire engine. And here's this light, that's the that's what do they do? Throw around in the air. And that's where the sale was. It's kind of like, you know, people would be like, you know, what's going on here. And somehow, some way I asked the question, Who switched the price tags that it didn't cost us to serve the Lord and or follow the Lord. Now, some of you also didn't like it, what do you mean costs us who switched the price tags that a relationship doesn't go two ways that were to submit that were to here that were to follow. And that jump on over here. He's made a way for us to get back, but in our hearts that we don't just ignore what took place over here. But we come before Him and say, Lord, wash my hands, cleanse my hearts. Don't let repentance be cheap and number four, humble yourselves before the Lord. When I humble myself, I kneel before the maker allowing him to do whatever he wants in my life I come before him as a my weakness because he tells me my weakness will make us strong I came across this statement it says we've cheapen grace, to no longer require mourning or grief or remorse. I feel terrible. I feel horrible was unresolved. course correction, we look within we go before him. Come near to God and He will come near to you. Wash your hands. purify your hearts. You double minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter. To morning in your joy to gloom. Humble yourself before the Lord and He will lift you up. I was telling. I was telling Blaine this past week in preparation for this message that in preparation of this message I was I was sitting there and it's just kind of a visual. I kind of felt like I kind of felt like the enemy was on my on my shoulder right here speaking this year saying this is so legalistic, Nick, you go out and preach that you get some people you get some people to leave because the people that it's kind of this discard this word, this is so legalistic. But then I on this side, I hear the holy words of the Lord saying do this and watch. Watch what will happen in lives. What is will happen in businesses while What will happen in hearts? Look how relationships will come back together. So I hope I actually, I mean, it would be nice, but at the same time, it really doesn't matter because I'm just trying to be obedient here. If you look at this as a legalistic message, I look at it as a life giving message that I can walk in hope beyond all measure, that I can have the joy unspeakable and as full of glory. I can walk saying, You know what, I know who my my Redeemer is. I know that I can be on the right track. I know there's there's life. And you know what, we're gonna run it, we're gonna run into challenges. We're gonna run into things in life. But I tell you what, when we learn to come before the Lord, like a bill Kirk, and say, Lord, forgive me, Lord, help me, Lord, change me. We can leave different. We sing a song, we're gonna write our worship team to come, we're going to conclude, we're gonna land the plane. And one of the lines in the song says, We need a fresh wind, we need a fresh wind of the Spirit, I'm going to ask you to stand with me all across this room. Heard that, like the like to conclude our service. First of all, if you're here, you know, the Lord is a personal Savior, you're watching online. And you've never said Jesus come into my life changed me forever. I want you to know, it's as simple as saying, Jesus come in my life changed me forever. It's as simple as acknowledging that He is Lord. It's as simple as saying, You know what, I surrendered to you, Father, I want to, I want to give my life to you, be Lord of my life. Repent of your sins. Bible says, you'll wash us whiter than snow. And the journey. Just like I mentioned earlier, we're going to believe you may be here this morning, and you deliver it to your life in just a moment and ask you to come and tell you what I'm going to pray, we're going to believe. And I believe you'll leave here and you have the you have the you have the opportunity to never be the same again, ever, ever. But because it gives us free will in our lives, we have to make that choice. We make that choice. Whether we take up the cross daily, deny ourselves and follow him. Or we just take it up on Sundays. Put it down and live over here. God wants us to live here. That's where life is. That's where abundance is. That's where change takes place. Articles of service on answers question? Where does the Holy Spirit speaking to you? Was he speaking this morning? What are you withholding from him? What have you What are you conjured in your mind? You know, I have to do that. I can I can I can look at pornography. It's not gonna really affect me. You know, it's not gonna not gonna mess me up that much. I can I can withhold from God, am I giving? Not a big deal? Again, we want to be here. Then we go here. One incredible morning, as a stand before Him. We needed a fresh wind of His power and His anointing that miracles continue to happen, that we still have mighty men of God, and mighty women of God. And so for these next few moments, as we sing this song, you may want to find a place to stand at this altar area, you may just want to stay in your seat. But let's pour our spirit out before him. Let's let him pour his spirit into us today. And say, Lord, whatever it takes. We're going about our prayer team to come forward even at this point and some of our executive leadership team. And we would love to pray with you. And if you'd rather no one pray with you. No problem whatsoever. I'm gonna tell you what, you've carried something in here today. He can change it all. Amen. Let's take this up.