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Open Door SDA Church

Dwayne Lemon

Live By the Word

Let me go ahead and say Happy Sabbath to everyone.

It's a pleasure to see you all again and I'm very grateful for this time that we have together to study God's wonderful words of life.

And I know the Lord has something special in store for us So I would like to go ahead and encourage us to be prayerful and consider what will be shared.

I want to encourage you all to take good notes.

If you want, you can take your phones out, take pictures, that's fine.

But in all things, I want us to really search our own hearts as we go through the Word.

Because if there's 1 thing that I have truly learned, and it has been the mantra of my ministry for many, many years, and that is that A gospel that is not practical is a worthless gospel.

It is imperative that what we hear, we can not only understand, but that we can say, Lord, how can you let this have a sanctifying effect on my life?

For me as a man, how does this affect me as a man?

How does this affect me as a co-worker with others?

And you can do the same thing as it relates to the various spheres of your life.

But I believe that if we receive what we're going to study today, the Lord will bless us way beyond our expectations.

And so let us go ahead and have a word of prayer.

I'd like to invite you, if you're able to, to kneel with me.

If you can't kneel, just bow your heads reverently where you are.

But let's all prepare to receive the word at this time.

Our Father in heaven, we thank you, dear God, for once again allowing us this privilege and this opportunity to hear your words.

I pray that you would please grant us your Holy Spirit.

May he enlighten our minds, Lord, and enable us to not only hear, but to follow, to obey that which you speak to our hearts.

Lord, I pray that you'll also make it plain, So simple that even a little boy, a little girl can follow, let alone the older individuals in the room.

And I pray in the end may our hearts be more united with you and as a result of that we will be united 1 with another.

Bless us to this end we pray and we ask all these mercies in Jesus name.

You know when I consider Jesus I'm realizing more and more every day that the the things that Christ has said to us, they are for our counsels, but I want us to go to the book of James chapter 1 and I just really want us to consider this and what you will find today is I believe that the message today is very simple, very simple, but it's very profound when it is followed.

It is very impactful and the Bible says in the book of James we're considering chapter 1.

When you get there just let me know by saying amen.

All right, sounds like we need a few more.

James 1, and this is really important when we think about the church.

When we think about those of us who come to church on a regular basis, it is really important that we consider James chapter 1, and we're going to look at verse 22.

James 1 and verse 22 and here's what the Bible says.

It says, but be ye doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.

The Bible encourages us, be a doer of the word.

Don't just hear it, don't just know it, do it.

It's not just in the hearing, it's in the doing.

And if there's 1 thing that Jesus gave to us that was designed to be an absolute blessing to us was a counsel that he demonstrated when he was in the mountain of temptation with the devil and it was found in Matthew chapter 4 and I want you to turn there with me.

In Matthew the fourth chapter There was a time that Jesus entered into the wilderness led by the Spirit Which I always thought was an interesting point We often don't think the Spirit of God will lead us into places where we'll be tempted but here it is that the Bible says exactly that in Matthew chapter 4 and the Bible says in Matthew 4 we're going to start at verse 1 and then we're going to take it down.

Matthew we're looking at chapter 4 starting at verse 1.

The Bible says in Matthew 4 and verse 1, then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.

And when he had fasted 40 days and 40 nights he was afterward and hungered and when the tempter came to him he said, if thou be the Son of God command that these stones be made bread and I love Jesus's answer because Jesus's answer was not merely an answer it was exemplary he said in verse 4, but he answered and said, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by how much?

Every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.

This was designed to be a blessing to us.

What Jesus just said is the hardest way to live, but it's the most rewarding way to live.

And I'll tell you the truth, the 1 thing that it never ceases to amaze me about how excellent an example Jesus was to us.

The reason Jesus Christ was an excellent example to you and an excellent example to me is because he never ever tells us to do something that he has not done it first.

It's like he paves the way, he prepares the path.

And this is why it's so important to understand the nature of Christ, because if we believe that he walked on this earth as the Superman then he's no longer your example and he's no longer my example because I can't do what Jesus did if when Jesus walked on this earth he was merely divine guess what He's not an example to you and I because I'm certainly not divine and I don't think you are either When Jesus came to this earth He came to this earth.

Jesus was born in this world like we are born again.

Let me repeat that and you check me on the Word of God.

Jesus was born in this world like We are when we're born again.

You see, when we're born, all we have is a sinful nature.

You're going to do what the sinful nature wants to do.

If you and I have no other power source, we're going to do what the sinful nature wants to do.

If you and I have no other power source we're going to do what the sinful nature wants to do.

I remember when Jesus was talking to a bunch of Jewish people that were not born again and they were claiming Abraham as their father.

And when they claimed Abraham as their father, Jesus got to a point that he said, you know what, I'm gonna tell you who your father is.

And he said to them in John 8, verse 44, he said, you are of your father, the devil.

But then here's the part that he said, the lusts of your father you will do.

You got to think about that for a second.

They rejected the Messiah who was right there in front of their face ready to bless ready to heal but because they were constantly rejecting him they had no power to resist the cause of Satan so you are of your father the devil and whatever Satan wants you to do you're going to do it Because no human being can resist the devil unless something else takes place first.

In James the fourth chapter, No 1 can resist the devil unless something takes place first.

God is such a God of order and I love it.

The Bible says in the book of James, we're considering chapter 4.

It's not that we don't have power to resist the devil, it's just that we have to understand the connecting source.

And the Bible spells it out crystal clear in James chapter 4.

And notice what it says right there in verse 7.

It says in James 4 and verse 7, it says, do what?

Submit yourselves therefore to God, then finish the verse.

No 1 can resist the devil if they have not first submitted to God.

Do you understand that Satan is over 6, 000 years old?

Do you understand that he has studied not only our lives, he studied our parents, he studied our parents' parents, he studied our parents' parents' parents.

I mean he knows the natural dispositions that you and I have.

We are absolutely no match for the enemy.

Any man or Any woman thinks I could beat the devil out of Mike.

I remember 1 time I used to watch these, safari programs, animal programs.

And I remember 1 time I was looking at the cheetah, because I was smart enough to know I can't beat a lion.

But I looked at a cheetah, and to me, cheetahs, I was like, I know why they're fast, they're so skinny.

And I was like, they're so skinny and they're so tiny, so whenever they're running, of course they're fast.

And so I thought all this time in my mind, I could beat a cheetah.

I can't beat a lion, but I can beat a cheetah.

If me and a cheetah had to wrestle for my life, that cheetah's going down.

And I remember thinking this in my mind, until 1 day I got a mission call to Africa.

And then when I got on there, I said, man, I can't wait.

I mean, I'm going to go ahead and do that.

I mean, a young black man going to Africa?

I'm going to go ahead and study my history and learn all sorts of stuff.

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Live By the Word

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