No me lo esperaba | Corre, diablo, corre | Jeremy DeWeerdt

Hello friends, how are you? It's good to have you today in the church. And well, let me tell you, we're only four weekends away from Easter. And that means that we have an incredible opportunity to invite our friends and families to spend Easter with us. So I encourage you to start thinking who you're going to invite. And invite, well, in time. Tell them, look, I'll bring you, you sit with me, we have different services on the weekend. And also, when you finish this, we have these cards, these invitations. Take several. Put them in your bag, in your jacket, when you go to the gym, for your coffee, with your neighbor, whatever. Give them to that person and invite them to come. And this weekend, we believe there are going to be literally thousands of people that are going to be visiting for the first time, for the first time here. I know the parking lot is going to be full, but we want the sky to be full.

So we don't care if it's full. It's going to be very important this weekend. There's going to be a lot of lives that are going to change. So let's believe that God is going to do great things, because I know he's going to do great things. He does it all the time. And we're in a series called, I Didn't See It Coming. And I said, it's a guide for skeptics to live like Jesus. And we're talking about the book of Santiago, which is in the New Testament. And that book was a letter and it was written for believers in the Roman Empire. And we call him, although the English version is James, in Spanish it's Santiago. He's Jesus' half-brother. And they're here for the first time. Wait a minute, wait a minute. Did Jesus have half-brothers? Yes. In fact, if you go back to the series, at the beginning of this series, I explained how this happened. I can't explain it all. I don't have time to explain it all today. But, well, Santiago grew up with Jesus, but he didn't believe that Jesus was who he said he was. And, well, if your brother said to you,

hey, I'm God, you wouldn't believe him, right? So, well, James says, no, I don't believe it. He was a skeptic. But when Jesus went to the cross and died and rose again, Santiago said, wow, he really is God. He went from being ultra-skeptical to being an all-in follower of Jesus. Even at a point, at a point, this is what he did. And, well, he was going to be killed for his faith. And he said, you know, I'm not going to, he's the son of God. And, well, we've been studying this month, what makes somebody go from skeptic to follower? And we should read his letter and what he tells us about the spiritual wisdom and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Because, you know, he's all-in. He's all-in. He says he's all-in. He goes with everything. And in this series, we're in the last week. And today's message is called, Run, devil, run. Run, devil, run. And I know you're going to understand in a moment. You're going to say, what's this? Well, they're going to do a good service. Many years ago, in the year 2000, I said this story.

Maybe you've already heard it. But I took a group of young adults to a college here in China, to a missionary event. And we landed in Beijing, China. And our work was to work with a Christian organization that was helping the church. China is a communist nation, especially at that time. Christianity wasn't legal. You couldn't worship legally. In fact, they'd put you in jail. They'd put you in jail, or they'd do something bad to you if you were a Christian. So, we used a methodology that doesn't work here in the United States, but it worked there. And that means that we brought some little things, some pamphlets that explained who Jesus is, and salvation. And in America, there were studies that had less than 0.5% effectiveness here in the United States. But over in China, where they've never heard about Jesus, there are more than a billion people that live there. So, they had never heard about Jesus, and they're reading things. And these pamphlets are very, very effective. So, I brought hundreds of these. And when we arrived,

we must have heard about Jesus. I went to a hotel and I met a pastor of an underground Christian church in Chicago. He only stayed for five minutes because he didn't want to be in public place because the communist police were behind him because he had a secret church. So we met in this lobby and he cried because he met for the first time in his life an American Christian pastor and he was so moved by that. And through a translator I said, no, no, no, no, no, you don't understand. This needs to be reversed. I have such a great honor to be in the presence of a spiritual hero like you because I can go to Walmart and buy something that has a cross every day of the week but you, you have to go underground and you're building a church in the darkness and it's exploding and many people are being saved but you are being threatened with persecution, with jail and I'm crying and he's crying and we're hugging and I say, oh my God, this is crazy. And then the next day we broke up with two other students and we went to this town, we called them cities because there were hundreds of thousands of people, there were a lot of buildings and everything. But what they would do back then, I don't know if they still do it in these cities, at nine o'clock the government would shut off the electricity. So they'd turn off the electricity and everybody would force themselves to go home because there was no electricity at night. Everyone has to go to bed at that time. And so what we did at night, me and the other students from the other teams that we were taking, we went to these cities at night when everyone was asleep. It was almost like the apocalypse. There was no car, there was no one on the street. It was totally desolate. And we would place pamphlets on the books, on the bicycles, on the walls, in the places where the bus stops.

And when people would get up, they would see this and they would read it. And they learned that Jesus loved them and that he died for them and they could be saved. So the key was, we had to take the first bus in the morning to get out of there because if not, the police would come looking for us. And something that you know is that you probably don't want to go to a Chinese prison because you're going to be forgotten. So we got on that bus in the first hour of the day and we got on that bus for six hours and we went to another bus for six hours and we went to that city at night and we did it again. We did it for like two, two and a half weeks. My oldest son, Cayden, was six weeks pregnant. Jen and I didn't have any communication for three weeks. I didn't know where I was. There was no way that I could talk to him because we were operating in the dark without anyone seeing us. And one day something happened that didn't happen in any other city. And it was that we were passing these signs putting them places at two, three in the morning and all of a sudden I see, and we're in an area and there are lights and they're coming at us. And it ended up being a van. And I said, oh my God, because night after night no one is on the street. And this van, and we're in the middle of a street in the city and there's a building in the back and there was no way to run and hide. So we froze and we were carrying bags with those signs.

If they catch us, we're going to be super, super, super bad. So this van pulls up and slows down and puts the headlights directly at us and drives at us and puts us against the wall. And the two students said, Pastor, what are we going to do? What are we going to do? And I said, oh, I have no idea what we're going to do right now. They caught us. So all of a sudden the Holy Spirit put something in my heart. I had this idea. There were two things. Number one, I had this strong sense, don't talk in English. Like, don't talk in English. as an American, this is going to be doubly bad. And then the second thing was, I felt like they were coming out of that truck, these men, and they were coming at us, and they were talking in Chinese, and they were talking, I don't know what they were saying, and they were being aggressive towards us. I felt like I had to yell at them in my native language. Now, I've done it, it's chapter two, it's another sermon, I can't talk about this right now, I don't have time, but I started talking in languages, biblical languages, I literally started talking in my language and they froze, they didn't know what to do. And they didn't know what to do, and I grabbed the students in the back and I talked, and I talked, and I told them, and I was talking, and I was walking like this with the two students,

one on one side, one on the other, and I told them, run, and we started running, and we just run, run, and we ran, and we ran, and we ran, and at one point the students said, that's it, that's it, that's it, that's it, we're leaving, and I said, no, keep running, keep running, and we hid, we hid for like an hour, and we didn't come out. What I learned from this experience, and that is this, that when you're in danger, you run differently, when you're in danger. This isn't like you put on your Lululemon, and you're just walking, no, no, you run, you run with everything you have, and we really ran, and today what I want to talk about, is I want to talk about what makes the devil run. Look, it's not what you think, because you know what, let me just say this, in our own humanity, we don't fear the devil, it's only God in us, and the power of heaven in us, that makes the devil shake. It's not us, it's God, right? You have to say that from the beginning. If you've been reading the book of Saint James, we had this plan, and you can read it, and we've been talking about this.

Maybe you've realized this, that Jaime, that Saint James says it the way it is. He's not politically correct, and he's saying things the way they have to be, and today is no exception to that. In fact, I want to read what he said in Saint James, and he was super skeptical, and now a man with passion, a believer of Jesus, writes this in chapter four, verse seven, he says, so humble yourselves before him. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you, and he will flee from you. Come closer to God, and God will come closer to you. Wash your hands, sinners, James says. Excuse me? Yes, that's correct. Purify your heart, because your loyalty is divided between God and the world. Tears are shed for what you have done. There is lament and deep sorrow. There is weeping instead of laughter, and sadness instead of joy. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up with honor. With honor. Run, devil, run.

That's what we're going to talk about today. Well, the enemy is always going to try to destroy your life. Saint James is not saying that you resist the devil once, and he goes away forever. That's not true. You know, what he's talking about is that the one who has walked with Jesus for a long time, time and time again, the enemy comes and he comes back, but what Saint James is trying to say is, we've got to have a posture that invites power, that creates the enemy, the enemy of fear, and, well, to fear what God is doing. Okay, so he starts with that idea. Humble yourself before God. Submit to God. Humble yourself before God. This word means to place yourself under another authority. I don't like that as Americans, because we want to be our own authority. We want to be in charge, right? And God is saying, no, no, no. Through James, he says, submit to his authority, right? Pride says, I have control of my life. But humility says, God, God is really in control. And every once in a while, when I have to leave my truck at the dealer to get it fixed, or, you know, My wife comes in her truck to pick me up, and she's driving, and I'm on the passenger's side, and we start driving, and I drive her crazy.

Well, there's something inside of me, and I want to be driving all the time, and she's driving, and I'm driving, and I'm being nice, and I'm thinking, why are we going so slow? Why are we going so slow? And sometimes I say, why did you turn here? We have to go that way. Or, why are you following that car so closely? And I started bothering her, and she turned around and said, honey. And you know what? When he says, honey, when he says it to me like that, I'm in trouble. And I said, oh, I even got worried when he said, honey. And she turned around and said, this isn't my first time driving. I've been driving since I was 16, and I said, okay, that's true, that's true. And I'm like, you're right, you're right. I'm the problem, it's me. Why? I've got a control problem. And that's how it is a lot of times with God. When I say, well, God, I want you to be the leader, and He forgives. You're God. Who's God? He's the one who rules over me. He's the leader. He's the one who has all the authority. We submit to His authority. And He's driving our lives, and you know what we do? We sit in the passenger seat, and we say, God, why did we turn here? We're like, God, why did we turn here? God, what were you doing? How fast were you going? God, what was I doing? God, we're in a rush. God, why did we turn here? God, what were you doing? How fast were you going? God, what was I doing? And all of a sudden, that control starts to enter inside of us, and here's what I want you to know. God's a better driver than you. When it's about your life, He knows what He's doing, and we're on the passenger side, and I say, God, we're out there, saying this, saying that, saying to God what we want Him to do, giving Him our direction, right? Complaining about everyone. And going forward in life starts where your pride ends. Where your pride ends, that's where it really starts. That's what's important. And as long as you say, no, I'm in control, I'm in control, you're not going to go forward like that. And Santiago wrote this, and he said, well, what do you do? You've got to be humble, and you've got to resist the devil, and he's going to run away from you, he's going to run away. When you're humble before God, God gives you the ability and the authority to face the influence of the enemy, and what does it mean to resist the devil? What does this mean? That the Holy Spirit helps you, and you don't get into temptation. None of us are, we don't get a 10 for this. No one's going to be perfect at this. We're always going to have problems with this, but little by little, the more you walk with God, the more you walk with God, he gives you more power, along with power and choice. It requires you to not be tempted. And well, temptation is not a sin. Sometimes people think being tempted is a sin. No. Because if it was a sin, Jesus would have been, imagine a sin in the desert, right? He was tempted for 40 days, 40 nights. Temptation is not a sin. It's a sin. It's only a sin when you give to temptation.

The Apostle Paul, who wrote these letters in the New Testament, he said it in this way, he said it in Corinthians chapter 6, he said, run, run against sexual immorality. I'm talking, well, realize that the church of Corinthians was in Las Vegas at that time, and he said, run, run against sexual immorality. And he also says it in chapter 10, he says, run, run away from sexual sin. And in chapter 14, he says, run from idols. Maybe you don't have an idol physically, but we all have, we all have, maybe it's being tempted to launder money, maybe it's advice, maybe it's our worship of idols. The show, for example, American Idol is ironic, right? Because I'm going to tell you, because Americans, the idols are ourselves. We worship ourselves. We don't need a statue. I have me. So Paul says, hey, don't give it to him. Don't have an idol. He says, flee it. Timothy, the meaningful desires of young people. Timothy, what you were saying, what you were trying to do as a young person, simply, the Greek word for this word means escape, right? The word flee, it says, run, escape quickly and prevent fear, the danger, quickly, run, run. Well, St. James then comes along and says, resist the devil and he will watch for you.

This word that St. James uses is the same word that in Greek, that Paul is using when he says, run away from immorality, run away from sexual sin, run away from the desires of young people. He's saying, run, run for your life, like that story that I just told you about China. And then St. James comes along and says, when you resist the devil, he will run for his life. He will run, he will run for his life. Run devil, run. When we run, when we flee from sin, the devil flees from us, why? Because the power starts to work on us and the enemy cannot put a candle or a candle to the power of God's light. So therefore he runs. Well, he's going to come back, he's going to try to hit you again, he does it all the time, he comes back. But the more we resist, the more the enemy flees. Here's the problem. You can't expect God to remove what you want to keep welcoming. So, if we resist, if we can't complain, when we get into temptation, and then we face the consequences, you can't get the enemy you keep on. It's not a power problem. It's not a power problem.

It's not a power problem. It's a passivity problem. We are passive of temptation, you and I, both. Sometimes we lower our guard, and instead of resisting the enemy, we leave him in our living room and say, oh, you stay there, I'm going to be in the kitchen. No, no, no. Jaime is saying, you can't do it. So Jaime tells us, come closer to God and wash your hands. He's not talking about physically washing your hands, it's a metaphor. But come closer to God, he says. Come, come closer to God, and God will come closer to you. Wash your hands, sinners. That's what he says. Purify your heart and your loyalty. That's the problem. It's that it's divided, the problem is, it's that God and the world. God and the world. That promise that Santiago is saying here, that's incredible. God says, if you look for me, you're going to find me. God is not trying to hide. God is not trying to hide.

I remember when my two old boys were little, they couldn't really talk. And I was coming, and they wanted to play hide and seek, the hidden ones, and I'm very competitive. And look, I really wanted to hide, but they're young, and I said, I can't hide. I could have climbed up the attic, and they wouldn't have found me for days. But that's not fun for a little kid. So, what would I do? I would sit in the corner of a room, and they would count, one, two, three, four, and I would sit in the corner, and I would put on a sheet, and I would put it on like a ghost, and I would stand there. And they would come in, and they would run, and they would look for me, and they would say, oh, we found you, and they would take off my blanket, and I would say, how, how did you do that? How did you find me? I was easy to find.

That's how God is. You have to start the search, but when you find Him, it's easy to find Him. In His word, in your heart, He's easy to find. And He doesn't speak to us. You see, the problem is, it's not that God doesn't speak to us, it's just that sometimes we don't listen. We're too consumed. We're too concerned. And we're too concerned. And we're too concerned. And we're too concerned. And even if you don't feel it, he's close. It's not about a feeling. It's about the fact that he's there. And when he's close, what do you think? And then he starts helping us to clean our heart. He helps us to do this, and we allow him to do this. Wash your hands. This is the behavior. Turn to God and say, God, I want to be more like you in my attitude, in my actions, in my motivations, in how I treat others. And how I treat you, and how I treat myself. Look, here's this Bible, this word, sanctification. It's a process.

It's different than salvation. It's different than prayer. So, there you go. You pray. God saves you. But then you go on to a process, and that process is going to last your entire life. Even if you're here for 60 years, no, you're in a process of sanctification, no matter how long you've been following him. Every day we have to be more like Jesus, every step of the way, even until we die, even until we go to heaven. It's a process that goes on. Ask God to help us be more like him, and less like us. And St. James points out this. He says, your loyalty is divided between God and the world. Divided between God and the world. Reminds me of when I was driving down the road, and one, you know, man's accident, and all of a sudden, a squirrel shoots out in front of me, right in my path. And I'm trying to slow down, I'm trying to get my brakes and stuff like that. I'm like, what's wrong with this? It's probably happened to you before. Squirrel shoots out in front of me. I'm like, what the fuck is this?

And I'm like, what the fuck is this? And I'm like, what the fuck is this? And he's like, go on, just keep it up. And I'm like, no, it's going this road. And no, it's like zigzagging back and forth. And I'm like, what the fuck is this? You know what I mean? It's not my fault. It's not my fault. Here's the thing. It was the indecision that resulted in a tragic outcome. But we do the same. I love God. I love the world. I love God. I love the world. And we go back and forth like the squirrel. If we just commit, our indecision results in tragic outcomes, right? But that's because God doesn't squash us. He has grace. He has grace. James is saying, you can't have two things that your heart is chasing now. Two, you have to love God and you can't love the world. But you got to love the world and you can't love God. Or you got to love the world. And what he's saying is, for the followers of the day, is that your heart is divided. And my question is,

and I'm asking this to you and to everyone, is that I'm even asking myself, what competes with God for your affection? What? Is it a person? Is it a thing? Is it money? Is it success? Is it reputation? Is it a vice? What? What is it like? What competes with God? What competes? We all have a list. We all have a list. You feel like a squirrel, right? We all have a list. Let's get a list. Well, I'm going to help you. I'm going to help you. I'm going to help you. I'm going to help you. I'm going to help you. Well, I'm going to help you. Don't be discouraged by this. That you might choose the first one. Pick the top one. And say, God, help me on this one. And say, God, help me on this one.

Pick the thing that you care about the most and the thing that gives you the most problems. Focus on this one. And focus on the other one. I'm not saying, ignore the other one. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I'm not saying, ignore the other ones. But, okay, here's the thing. Focus on the big one. And say, God, help me. Help me on this area. Because this thing is, God, my heart should be yours. My heart should be yours. Ask God. Ask God to break your heart. It's weird. But break your heart. Break your heart. What's breaking your heart? What's making you sad? What's making you sad? And ask God. God, I know this commitment, this compromise, this thing that I'm doing is breaking your heart. Help me. Help me see it like this. What's James saying? Repent. What's James saying? Repent.

Repent. One of these are really from the Bible. It's not actually from a church. It's actually a Bible. And he says, look at what you did. Look at what you've done. Look at what you've done wrong and look at what went wrong on purpose. Instead of laughter, instead of happiness, instead of sadness, instead of laughter, instead of gloominess, instead of joy. And maybe you say, if you come to church, you say, Pastor, help me feel better, and be happy, and all that. And of course, yes, God wants you to be happy, but He also wants you holy. And that means that sometimes we have to have this sadness. We have to not feel guilty, we have to not feel this shame. The enemy says, you have to have pity for yourself. No, God says, you have to remove that shame, that shame. It's not about making you feel guilty or having false emotions. No, what it is, it is a spiritual clarity of the seriousness of sin. And Paul describes it this way in 2 Corinthians. He says, what does he say? What does he say next in 2 Corinthians? He says, from time to time, he says, we have to do it. He says, well, we have to repent, right? Total repentance. He says, we have to say, okay, I did it, and then feel bad about it, and change it. We have to tell them, you know what, my heart is sad, right? We have to have pain for what we do that makes God sad. And we have to say, okay, I took my responsibility. I have pain from this, help me God. And you're never going to be able to change what you don't want to admit. Admit to God what you need to change.

And the other thing he says is, you have to be humble and walk. And we're going to put this passage here on the screen. It started off with him, so humble yourselves before God. And then it gives all kinds of instruction. And the very end says, humble yourselves before God. Humble yourselves before God. Humble, humble. The book ends of resisting the enemy, of resisting God, of living a life that's praising God. The book ends. Humility is the key that unlocks this life, that gives God pleasure and joy, that you say, God, I am not in charge of this. I am not going to justify or compromise. I'm going to really have humility. And I think it's interesting that the man, who is the half-brother of St. James, wrote this. Why? Because for a major portion of his life, he had a lot of pride. He says, Jesus is crazy. He's not who he says he is. And he had to humble himself. He had to be humble and say, you know what? He is God. And I, I was in the wrong. I wasn't, I didn't believe it. I was in the wrong. And he said, when we humble ourselves before God, the enemy flees. Our hearts are clean and God restores what selfishness destroyed.

So today, as we close today, my prayer is that we take the word of James, of St. James, and that we humble ourselves before God. We don't have to hide sin. We have to admit it before God. God already knows. What does it say in the garden? Adam and Eve hid when they sinned. Is this going to work? He is God. He's going to say, let's see, no, I don't know where they are. It's going to be done, right? No. But we, as humans, we've been hiding from him since then. After we sin, we have to humble ourselves before God and say, look, I admit my sin and what I've committed. And in humility, I come to you to admit it and to ask you for forgiveness. And when that happens, we move closer to God. God moves closer to us. He cleanses our hearts. He begins to cleanse us little by little. Not perfectly, but little by little. He begins to cleanse us. And it all begins with humility. We have to be honest. I remember some time ago they said, being honest is being honest.

When you think you're not everything, or you think you're only that, that's not the reality. That's called pride. And on the other hand, when you say, I'm nothing, I'm not worth anything, that's not true either. Humility is the truth. And the truth is that you shouldn't be on the other side. of your life, controlling everything, managing your places in the passenger, and say, God, you are in charge of my life. God, right now as we close, help us pray right now as we close. You would help us to be humble. Help us to admit the fact that many times our hearts compromise certain values. We say or do things, our motives are incorrect, treat people wrong, do things that we regret, that we have consequences. So in humility, Lord, we say, forgive us, Lord. God, forgive us. We name these things, we call them out. We don't say them so vaguely. No, we really say them for what we regret. And God, you promise us that you will forgive us and cleanse our hearts. And by the way, this morning, we say, we purposefully call out to you so that you will move closer to us.

Lord, help us not to be divided in our hearts. Because if we are going to be honest, many of us, we still love you. Help us to love your way and not be divided between you and this world. Help us to be with you every day. Help us, help us more and more. We're not going to be perfect. But God, guide us. Guide us, inspire us for your Holy Spirit. And God, when it comes to sin, that we run, we flee, we run from sin. Don't put us in a dumb situation where we do dumb things. But instead of this, run, run from these things. And God, you say that if we resist the temptation of the enemy, he will have to flee from us. So God, help that to happen. Lord, fill our lives with humility and our desperate need for you to be near us. Thank you for your grace. In the name of Jesus. With all eyes closed, head bowed, you say, oh, I've heard this. And I need to make Jesus the leader. And I need to make Jesus the leader of my life. And I'm going to put him in charge of my life. I'm going to give him my life. You're not uniting with the church.

You're uniting simply with the creator who made you, who died for your sins and for me, and paid the price that we can't pay for our sins. Jesus resurrected. The Bible says he's going to give us a new life. So that's what I need. I need God to be the leader of my life. I want to ask for forgiveness. If it's you, just raise your hand. If it's not you, just go ahead and raise your hand. I guarantee it all over the room. I guarantee it all over the world. All right, when you raise your hand, let's all say this aloud. And really, when you say this, you're not repeating my prayer. You're repeating the prayer that God is listening to you. He loves you. He wants to forgive you. He's listening to you personally. He wants you to have a new life. Let's all say this prayer together. I'm a father. I'm coming to you today. And I admit that I'm a sinner. I need your grace. I need your forgiveness. So forgive me, Jesus. Jesus, thank you for dying for me. Enter my heart.

I want to live for you. In the name of Jesus. And we all say, amen, amen, amen. A very loud applause for God.