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How to Grow Closer to God
James 4:4-10 (Read vs. 1-10)
Sermon by Rick Crandall
Grayson Baptist Church - Feb. 22, 2015
*Nothing is standing still in this world.
You may think you're still, but every moment of every day, we are on a planet spinning at over 1,000 mph.
On top of that we are racing around our sun at 67,000 mph.
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*Christians: Not one of us is standing still.
This is true both physically and spiritually.
Every day we are either getting closer to God or farther away.
I wish this Christian walk was a one way street, but it's not.
Sometimes it's two steps forward and one step back, and some people are headed in the wrong direction.
*Many of us know people who used to be in church every time the door was open.
They used to come, teach, serve and give, but now they don't.
Many of them aren't just pulling away from church.
They are pulling away from God.
*But things can get better when it comes to our relationship with God!
We can grow closer to God, and we must.
Considering all that is going on in the world today, and the uncertainties of life, there has never been a more crucial time for us to get closer to God.
And God wants us to be closer to Him.
Today's Scripture shows us how.
1. First: We must choose to be friends with Christ.
*Choosing the right kind of friends makes all the difference in the world.
And above all, we must choose to be a friend of God.
That's why James put it so strongly in vs. 4, when he said, "Adulterers and adulteresses!
Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity (or hostility) with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God."
*Everyone has a choice to make: Be a friend of the world or be a friend of God.
You can go along with the world or you can go along with God, but you can't do both.
*When James talks about "the world" here, he's talking about the world system, the evil system that believes might makes right.
It puts outward beauty over inward beauty.
It believes that the end justifies the means, and it is based on a foundation of lies.
*This evil world system rejects Jesus Christ, and puts someone else on the throne.
It puts self on the throne.
It is selfish, sensual and sinful.
It celebrates the darkest parts of our hearts, and it gives great rewards to the trashiest kind of talent.
*Everyone has a choice to make: Be a friend of the world or be a friend of God.
This doesn't mean we can't have friends in the world.
I thank God for my friends.
I thank God for you.
But God Himself deeply desires to be our Best Friend.
*That's why vs. 5 asks Christians: "Do you think that the Scripture says in vain, 'The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously'?" God has a holy jealousy to be number one in our lives.
He wants us to see Him as our best friend, because He is our best friend.
*As Jesus said in John 15:13, "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."
That's what Jesus did when He died on the cross for our sins.
Thinking about the cross, Charles Spurgeon said, "See what (our) sin deserved.
It was all laid on Him.
Ridicule for the folly of sin, scorn for the pretension of sin, shame for the audacity of sin, and Jesus took it all."
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*Martin Dale told about a woman who was sentenced to death during the French Revolution.
Her only crime was being a duchess who came from a wealthy family.
She was thrown into prison, but still allowed to be served by a maid who loved her dearly.
*While the exhausted duchess slept, the maid quietly put on her mistress' clothes.
And when the duchess' name was called, the maid went out, and was executed in her place.
*Later, the duchess woke-up and found her clothes gone, so she put on the servant's clothes.
And when the jailer came in, he said, "You are free to go.
Your mistress has just been executed."
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*That's what Jesus Christ did on the cross for us.
He took our place.
How could we ever choose friendship with the world over friendship with God? God wants us to be closer to Him, so choose to be friends with Christ.
2. Also humble your heart before God.
*We will never get closer to God unless we humble our hearts before the Lord God Almighty.
James made this truth very clear to us in vs. 6-7, where he said:
6.
But He gives more grace.
Therefore He says: "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.''
7. Therefore submit to God. . .
*Then in vs. 10, James said: "Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up."
*We must humble our hearts before the Lord, and God wants to help us be humble.
That's one of the reasons why He designed us to need sleep every night.
God gives us an everyday reminder that we are not as strong as we think we are.
*He wants to help us be humble, because pride is the granddaddy of all sins.
Satan became Satan because of pride.
Isaiah 14:12-14 brings these charges against the devil:
12. "How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!
How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations!
13.
For you have said in your heart: 'I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north;
14.
I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.'"
*Arrogant pride is the granddaddy of all sins.
It's one of the main reasons why Eve took the fruit in the Garden of Eden.
And all of the evil in this world can be partly traced back to sinful pride.
It is a hurtful and ugly thing.
*Do you remember the ebola nurse who refused to be quarantined?
That kind of arrogance is nothing new.
In 1856, the American sailing ship, "Frost" arrived in Guam from Manila.
The military surgeon on Guam recommended to the governor that the ship be quarantined for at least three days before passengers were allowed to leave.
The reason why was because a young man onboard had died of smallpox only one day before.
*Unfortunately, there was a very proud and prominent citizen onboard the ship.
His name was Silvistre Palomo, and he insisted on coming ashore with his servant.
"Who does that doctor think he is?
Who does that governor think he is?
I'm Silvestre Palomo!
Nobody tells me what to do!" That's sinful pride.
*Palomo's servant was the first person to get sick, and before it was over 3,644 people died from smallpox.
Almost half of all the people on the island died, all because of stubborn pride.
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*Many times we can't see it that clearly, but stubborn, sinful pride is always a hurtful and dangerous thing.
So "Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up."
That's how to get closer to God.
3.
And God wants us to be closer to Him, so also move toward the Master.
*As James says in the first part of vs. 8: "Draw near to God and He will draw near to you" Come closer to God, and He will come closer to you.
*We need to move closer to God.
And when we do, we find out that He was close by us all the time.
King David made this truth clear to us in Psalm 139, where he said:
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