Submission To God

Jas 4:7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

Jas 4:8 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.

Jas 4:9 Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.

Jas 4:10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.

MHCC - Here are cautions against corrupt affections, and love of this world, which is enmity to God. (1-10)

1. Your will must be submitted

2. Your Resistance needs to be strong

3. You can be assured the devil will flee

1. Your will must be submitted

a. Acc - Submit-to God Continue to bow to all his decisions, and to all his dispensations.

b. Dan Jackson - Selfish indulgence is responsible for discord. This is the pursuit of personal pleasure without regard for God or other people.

c. One Writer states, “All human conflict is ultimately traced back to the frustrated desire of wanting more than we have, and being resentful of what others have, whether it is position or possessions.

d. Mark Shaufele - Seeking our own will leads to:

a. Quarrels

b. Strife

c. Heartache

d. Financial trouble

4. When God bolts the door, don’t try to get in through the window. The will of God never will lead you where the grace of God cannot keep you.

e. Chris Talton - I Timothy 2:8 which tells us to lift up holy hands to God. By lifting their hands to God, they are doing several things.

f. First, they are offering everything to God. They’re saying, Lord, here are my hands and everything that I hold in my hands. I give you everything that I am and have as an offering. Use it however you want.

g. The second thing that they are doing by raising their hands is asking God to search their hands. They’re saying, Lord, if there is something that I am holding onto that is dirty or is distracting me from you, then I want you to take it out of my hands. Whatever you want God, my family, my business, my home, my leisure time, I let go of it.

Lilyan van Almelo , writes While accompanying our son and his fiancé to sign some pre-wedding ceremony papers. While filling out the form, our son read aloud a few questions. When he got to the last one, which read: "Are you entering this marriage at your own will?" he looked over at his fiancé. "Put down ’Yes,’" she said.

2. Your Resistance needs to be strong

h. RWP - take a stand against." It is imperative; Result of such a stand is that the devil will flee.

i. Imperitave, means – very important, urgent, necessary

j. Tom Sine wrote in an article in World Christian magazine,

Fifteen years ago the dominant value among college freshmen was “finding a meaningful philosophy of life.” Today that value has dropped to number eight on the list. Predictably, “being well off financially” has soared to the top of the list of 70 percent of all freshmen.

k. Don’t let culture dictate to you how to think, what you like, where you go, how you act. Be proactive instead of Reactive. Reactive is what the church world has seemed to be over the years. They watch what the world is doing and that is what the preachers have preached against. How about trying to be proactive, be a leader, resist Satan,

l. Dave Reever, Who is a Vietnam vet has stated in one of his many speeches of how God saved him during the war, how when a teen the guys he ran around with tried to get him to go drinking with them. Dave, a preachers son didn’t drink and had never had alchohol at all. When being approached his friend said, Everyone is doing it, and Dave replied, “If I am somebody, who is part of Everybody and I am not doing it, then everybody is not doing it. He says, he can’t understand the immense pleasure of getting drunk coming home and throwing up all over the furniture.

m. You don’t have to let the Culture around you control you, with God’s help you can stand strong and tall and Resist Satan.

n. ACC - Resist the devil - He cannot conquer you if you continue to resist. Strong as he is, God never permits him to conquer the man who continues to resist him; he cannot force the human will. He who, in the terrible name of JESUS, opposes even the devil himself, is sure to have a speedy and glorious conquest. He flees from that name, and from his conquering blood.