My Pastor is doing a series of sermons on James 4:6-10, the title of the sermon was "Live Clean".
James 4:6-10
But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says:
"God opposes the proud
but gives grace to the humble."
Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 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 and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.
The basic message was just as we need to keep physically clean to stay healthy we need to remain spirtitually clean. Just as you collect dirt on the outside, dirt clings to your spirit. We need to purify our hearts, submit to God by living what we believe, resist the Devil, and draw near to God by wanting to live in His presence. Our reaction is to cover up "dirt" and hide it, but sin will find us out and we ultimately become our secrets. The Devil wants the secrets to continue to that they become a pattern. These patterns of behavior cause us to coast through life, marriage, etc. so that we live in a way that's less than God's will for us. The Devil wants to keep us in bad patterns of behavior so that selfishness takes control.
To resist these patterns of behavior is hard work; you have to go against human nature. Don't cover it up; clean it up. When we confess to God, we say that we agree with God's will for us - we "come clean". When we come clean we will draw near to God and He will draw close to us. Keeping clean is a continuous process. God has the power to make us clean and create new patterns of behavior.
We need to admit the issues in our life and capture every thought and action in obedience to Jesus Christ and we need to be honest with and pray for each other. When we are open with God, we can be open with our confessions with each other and the Devil cannot get a foothold in our hearts.
That's about the best that I can recollect. One interesting point that he made is that our immediate reactions to things are quite revealing, such as our reaction when we encounter a bad driver!
Anyway, I'm curious what other Christians learned at church today!
James 4:6-10
But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says:
"God opposes the proud
but gives grace to the humble."
Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 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 and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.
The basic message was just as we need to keep physically clean to stay healthy we need to remain spirtitually clean. Just as you collect dirt on the outside, dirt clings to your spirit. We need to purify our hearts, submit to God by living what we believe, resist the Devil, and draw near to God by wanting to live in His presence. Our reaction is to cover up "dirt" and hide it, but sin will find us out and we ultimately become our secrets. The Devil wants the secrets to continue to that they become a pattern. These patterns of behavior cause us to coast through life, marriage, etc. so that we live in a way that's less than God's will for us. The Devil wants to keep us in bad patterns of behavior so that selfishness takes control.
To resist these patterns of behavior is hard work; you have to go against human nature. Don't cover it up; clean it up. When we confess to God, we say that we agree with God's will for us - we "come clean". When we come clean we will draw near to God and He will draw close to us. Keeping clean is a continuous process. God has the power to make us clean and create new patterns of behavior.
We need to admit the issues in our life and capture every thought and action in obedience to Jesus Christ and we need to be honest with and pray for each other. When we are open with God, we can be open with our confessions with each other and the Devil cannot get a foothold in our hearts.
That's about the best that I can recollect. One interesting point that he made is that our immediate reactions to things are quite revealing, such as our reaction when we encounter a bad driver!
Anyway, I'm curious what other Christians learned at church today!
The only fear one should have is that of the L-rd. Fear nothing but His wrath. Don't be concerned for the future, just live your life according to His word and everything will turn out fine in the end. Remember, it takes a conscious effort on your part. It's not as though G-d will just take over your life and make all your decisions for you. This is something many born-again Christians just expect to happen but this goes against the concept of free will. You have to meet Him halfway, and He'll do the rest 
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