SPEAKER_01 0:03

Good morning, and welcome to Fresh Mercy Podcast, where God's mercy is fresh for you each and every morning. Praise the Lord and good morning. Good morning, everybody. It is Tuesday. We only do that on Tuesday, right? Yeah, yeah. And we don't mention the other dishes. Yeah, Tita. Taco Tuesday. Good morning. Well, thank God. Yesterday, if you didn't watch the episode, I encourage you to. We talked about jealousy. And if you have jealousy in your heart, your life will be ruined. It is what it is. You're on a path to destruction. Right.

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Your physical and spiritual life will be ruined.

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Get rid of it. Repent and trust in the Holy Spirit. If you didn't watch the episode, go watch it. I encourage you guys to do so. But today, Deacon Donnie's bringing the word of the Lord. Ready, Donnie?

SPEAKER_00 0:49

Amen. Let's rock. I want to talk to you guys today about something that's always said in church. You guys hear it all the time, but maybe it's not taught about as much. Are you guys ready? Yeah. We're talking about dinosaurs. It was a terrible teaching. The theory of dinosaurs. Every time you go to a baptism and someone gets in the tank and they say, Hey, little boy or little girl. What do you want from Grizzlies? Santa Claus. Hey, little boy or little girl. Why are you getting baptized? Can I give the answer? Yeah, go ahead. Uh-huh. You want to get closer to the Lord? I want to get closer to God. And everyone says that. I want to get closer to God. Yeah. And then how about those people that when they're kids, they got baptized, and then they maybe grew up. And after they grew up, and you talk they see you and you're teaching and you're in the church, they come to you and say, Man, I need to get closer to God. Wait, wait, Donnie, that's unbelievable. They never got closer to God. They got baptized and never got there.

SPEAKER_01 1:48

They never got there.

SPEAKER_00 1:49

They took the step to the in their mind, the beginning of getting closer to God, but then they never did. Well, if you say, or if you said, I want to get closer to God when you got baptized, number one, you're wrong. That's not the reason to get baptized, and that's a different podcast. I like that. Second of all, is this today we're going to learn what it truly looks like to become closer to God.

SPEAKER_01 2:09

Fabulous.

SPEAKER_00 2:10

You guys want to learn that today? Yes. Amen. That's great. Okay. Uh the boys looking at their phones hearing me. Stop, John. Okay, so James, you said earlier I'm a James man. Yes, you are. Earlier, I mean yesterday. Yes, yes. Yesterday you told me I'm a James man. Keep it that way. Uh in James chapter 4, verse 7 through 10. I'm going to read out the NLT version. And it says this Humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

SPEAKER_01 2:37

Simple.

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Come close to God, and God will come close to you. Amen. So James is thinking talking about getting close to God. And look what he says. He says, humble yourselves and come close to the Lord. And look at the promise he gives. God will come close to you. So we're going to keep reading. I don't want to get ahead of myself. Thank you, Jesus. Wash your hands, you sinners. Wait, hold on. It started off so beautiful, and now we're getting called sinners. Wash your hands, you sinners. Purify your hearts. For your loyalty is divided between God and the world. Let there be tears for what you have done. Let there be sorrow and deep grief. Let there be sadness instead of laughter, and groans instead of joy. Humble yourselves again, humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up in honor.

SPEAKER_01 3:35

Very good.

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So look what it says. So let's look at the list from the Life Application Study Bible to help us understand this verse. Now in the Life Application Study Bible, there gives a list on breaking down this verse on how to get closer to God. Wow, wow, very good. Are you guys ready? Yes. So James lifts off five steps. In those verses we just read, there's five steps to get closer to God. Number one, humble yourself. Humble yourself before God, yield to his authority and will. Commit your life to him and control and in his control and be willing to follow him. How do I get closer to God? Follow Jesus. Amen. How do I do that? Stop following your sinful way. That's it. Because let me tell you something, when you're following yourself, when you're living what you want to do and you're and you're fulfilling that selfish desire, guess what that is? That's the exact opposite of being humble, that's being prideful. Because you you're going above what God has a standard for you. Very good. You're saying, God, I know what's better for me. This is more fun. God, I know what your word says, but I don't want to do what your word says. I want to do what I want to do. And that's a form of pride. Humble yourself before God. Learn His scriptures. Learn His will in His life for you. Pray that you would be in His will and humble yourself, and God will show you how to follow Him. Hallelujah. Really good deacon. Two, resist the devil. Resist the devil. Don't allow Satan to entice and tempt you. Well, Donnie, I have a gambling addiction. Okay, you have a gambling addiction. That's fine. Well, we're gonna pray for you. Okay, so tell me, what did you do yesterday? Boy, the boys picked me up. Zorassa, they bring me to the casino. Eh? I went there, I gambled. But the devil made me do it. Okay, me. So let me ask you a question. You couldn't get out of that situation? I'll put it how the boys picked me up. Alright, me. So the boys picked you up, they put you in the casino, they went into your pocket, they put the money in the machine, they hit the button, it didn't work, they put more money. No. Look how simple. You have the power and the authority to resist the devil. To resist resist the temptation. That's it. How do we do that? When you start following Jesus, when you start humbling yourself, then you resist the devil. What is resisting the devil look like? The boys are calling you to go to the casino or going to somewhere that you shouldn't be. Guys, I'm gonna stay home. Guys, instead of going to the nightclub, I'm gonna go to church.

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That's it. There's church every night. There's never not a night.

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Instead of answering that phone call, block the number. That's it. Block it. There's ways to resist the devil. The Bible says this that the Lord will not allow a temptation to overcome you. And the Bible also says that Jesus went through every temptation, yet without sin. That's it. It's not a sin to be tempted. It's a sin to fall into that temptation. Don't fall into that temptation. Resist the devil. Humble yourself and resist him and he will flee.

SPEAKER_01 6:31

Very good. Donnie, not to cut you off. There's a scripture in Peter. And I'm bad with addresses too. John Zaro's gonna kill us. Shout out to John Zaro. In Peter it says, God has given you everything you need to live a godly lifestyle. So a lot of guys say, but hey, I can't be a Christian. It's very hard. If you're a Christian, God has given you everything you need to follow him. So he gave you the tools to do so. Above all, the Holy Spirit. Amen.

SPEAKER_00 6:58

Very good. He's the helper. He's the helper. Wash your hands and purify your hearts. Great. What does that look like? A purified life. How do I live a purified life? Be cleansed from sin, replacing your desires to sin, what your desires to experience God's purity. What does that mean? When you say no to your what you want to do and what God wants to do, you're denying yourself. The Bible says to deny yourself, pick up your cross and walk and follow. Follow Jesus. Follow God. Four, let there be sorrow and deep grief over your sin. Don't be afraid to express deep heartfelt sorrow for what you have done. Listen, everybody has problems. Everybody has sinned. We all fall short of the glory of God. But you know what? It's important to confess your sins to your brothers and to confess your sins to God. God, you know whatever I've done. I I I gave a podcast a few weeks ago and I said to be truthful with God. I don't want to be untruthful to God anymore. I want to go to Him with all my heart and say, Lord, you know what I've done. There's nothing I can hide from you. Please, God, remove it out of my life. Purify me. Wash me. Cleanse me. Make me whole. Get me get rid of this ugly desire. We're going to fail. We're going to make mistakes and we have God's grace. But you know what Paul said? Since we have such great grace, should we let sin run rampant? And he says, God forbid. God forbid. We have the grace of God. Let's not take advantage of it in a negative way. Let's take advantage of it in a positive way. Hallelujah. How do we do that? When we don't say, Well, I'm going to do this sin and God's going to forgive me anyway because I'm saved. No, no, no. When you say, Lord, give me the power to resist this sin and let me walk in your experience. Let me walk in your purity. Amen. And number five, humble yourself before the Lord, and he will lift you up in honor. It goes right back to one. The key here is to humble yourself. Very good. Humble yourself before the Lord. What does that look like? Lord, I'm a sinner. I need your grace. I can't do it alone. I can't do it without you. Maybe you're struggling today with an addiction. Get rid of that direct direct uh addiction. How do I do that? When you humble yourself before the Lord and allow the Holy Spirit to cleanse you. I got news for you. There's not you can give up nothing. You can give up an addiction. You can't give up a relationship that you shouldn't be in. You can't give up a business. You can give up anything that is not of God without the power of the Holy Spirit.

SPEAKER_01 9:28

That's it. Away from me, you cannot do nothing. You can do nothing without Jesus.

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Submit yourself, humble yourself before the Lord. Tell God to clear you, purify you, walk in his spirit. Hallelujah. Then he would give you a contrite heart to follow him, to desire him. And then when you do that, when you humble yourself before the Lord, he will lift you up. Hallelujah. What does that mean? What does lift up look like? Lift up looks like this. When you look more like the spirit than the flesh.

SPEAKER_01 9:55

Hey, very good.

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When you resemble more like Christ, then you that's being lifted up. The Bible says that we're Christians to be Christ-like. But if I look like Donnie, then I'm failing as a Christian. And the Holy Spirit didn't fail, I'm failing. But what do I do when I humble myself before the Lord, and the Holy Spirit lifts me up, and when I start to resemble Christ, that is Christ's giving glory. That's Christ building us up. That is Christ getting glorified. So today, humble yourself before the Lord and allow God to lift you up.

SPEAKER_01 10:28

That's it. When you got baptized, you said, I want to get closer to God. That wasn't the key. To get closer to God is what the scriptures told us to do. The list that Donnie showed us today, maybe you'll feel far from the Lord. You feel far from prayer. You'll feel far from his presence. In fact, you even feel an eerie feeling. You feel evilness. You feel distant from God. Get into the presence of the Lord today by prayer, by worshiping, by surrendering. Put aside your ways, put aside the human nature and put on the nature of Jesus. We learned that what was it two or three weeks ago? Maybe further more. Put on Jesus today. Clothe yourself in Jesus and trust in him. Donnie, that message encouraged me that I want to get closer every day to the Lord.

SPEAKER_00 11:16

Well, I'm telling you now, these messages that I have for this week, it was for me first.

SPEAKER_01 11:19

Amen.

SPEAKER_00 11:20

It's always, I always say that, but the message, Chache, was truly for me. Now, every message that I preach, I apply it to my life. Absolutely, absolutely. But these messages really spoke to my heart. Unbelievable. So then he close us out in prayer.

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Let's go before the Lord. God, we ask Devla that we be with you today. We're tired of asking you to do what we want. We want to do what you want. Because everything we want is bad. But what you want is good. May we follow your will today. As the scripture says, to resist the devil, we want to resist obeying. We want to resist his ways. We don't want to follow the world. We want to follow Jesus today. So today I pray for all of my brothers and sisters in Christ of love as they pray, as they worship you, as they seek you, that you may be found. Bless the remainder of this day. We trust in you, God, in Jesus' name. Amen and amen.

SPEAKER_00 12:14

Amen and amen. For the Fresh Person Podcast, we love you guys.

SPEAKER_01 12:18

God bless.