Well, take your Bibles and turn to James chapter 4. James chapter 4, and we’re going to look at God’s Word this afternoon in James chapter 4. This is important, very important, to be able to lay a continuing foundation of what God wants to do in your heart and your life.

As Evangelist Jim Van Gelderen said this morning, we want to be able to see you experience personal revival and the reviving presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. And this passage here is a revival passage to bring us back to the Lord, to bring us closer to God.

And some things that will hinder us from that personal revival is what we’re going to talk about this morning or this afternoon. Look at James 4 and find verse 6. And when you find James 4, 6, would you stand?

Let’s go ahead and stand to show our public respect for God’s word. And look, if you would, it says this, but he giveth more grace. That’s God gives more grace.

Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and purify your hearts, ye double-minded. Be afflicted and mourn and weep.

Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up. The title of the message this afternoon is a very unique question.

Are you a snake or a worm? Are you a snake or a worm? You say, Brother Miller, is there another option?

Because I don’t like either of those. Are you a snake or a worm? Let’s pray just briefly and ask the Lord to help us.

Heavenly Father, would you help us to pay attention? Would you draw our attention to your word and Holy Spirit be our teacher and the conviction that we need? I ask this in Jesus’ name.

Amen. You may be seated. Thank you for standing.

There are few animals on this planet that I hate more than a sneaky, silent, slithering snake. When it comes to snakes, I am scared. I am just scared out of my wits.

And I’ll act like I’m not scared if I’m the biggest one there, but inside I am scared of snakes. I remember one time I was staying with a family. I was single at the time, traveling for the ministry of the Bill Rice Ranch.

And I was staying in their basement. It was an apartment downstairs. And throughout the time there, I was there for a few months,

actually played some practical jokes on them, and they played some practical jokes on me. And so I’m getting out of the shower one time,

and as I’m doing so, I see on the bathroom floor a little bitty black rubber snake. Man, I jumped, you know.

I thought, oh, man, he got me. While I was in the shower, put this in here to hide, and I’m thinking, oh, I can’t believe he put this little black rubber snake.

And then the black rubber snake moved. He was only like 15 inches long. He was a really small guy, but he’s still a snake

And so I said I could get rid of the snake. So, uh, thankfully it was just a Just barely a warm spring day.

So he was still moving slowly I got him into a trash can and I put the lid on I went upstairs. I said, hey

Did you put this snake down in the bathroom? He said no, I didn’t put the snake down in the bathroom He said, you know what kind of snake that is don’t you I said no

He said that’s a king snake you know what they do don’t they don’t you I said no said they eat other snakes I said oh he’s on my team he’s just wearing the wrong uniform so I said yeah let him go let him eat

more snakes and so he let that one go and I remember still there are more run-ins with snakes one time some guys and I were cleaning a particular building and I had to leave for a while and and they were cleaning.

They found a snake, and it was like a five-foot black racer. And so they found it, and they didn’t want to tell me.

They wanted to let me have the joy of finding it and discovering it myself. And so they were waiting at the side, and I come around the corner.

I open the door. Right there on the floor is a snake. I jump back, slam the door, and I said, what are you?

And they’re laughing. Oh, I can’t believe it.

And I said, take care of the snake. They said, no, you take care of the snake.

I said, I’m not taking care of the snake. Well, there was a good old boy in Tennessee. He said,

I’ll take care of the snake. And so he just came over, and the snake was there. He just grabbed a two-by-four with one whack.

Wham! Went up. The head just bounced, and it went limp.

Wow! Why couldn’t I have done that? You know, he puts the two-by-four under the snake,

and he carries the snake out. And now the snake wakes up. He’s not dead.

And he wakes up, and he has a headache, and he’s rather upset. And so he comes down and he’s now he’s striking it.

Everybody, we’re like a big circle of guys around the snake and he’s striking around. And the good old boy goes, well, get his attention. I think we’ve got his attention.

He said, well, get his attention and draw him one direction. I said, OK, so we got a broom and it starts striking at this broom and it starts going out straight going towards this broom.

So he just steps with his heel of his boot, just one step right on the head of the snake has a 360 right there. And now the snake is really upset, and it has a very bad headache,

and a jaw alignment, because no longer is he snapping like this, but now his jaws are like this, and he’s flapping like that. But he is still going.

I thought, this guy just will not die. I can’t believe it. And so we were trying to get this thing,

and we thought, well, it’s going to be dead now. Well, it wasn’t, and it still went on. And Finn finally had to take a very blunt object and help it have no more headaches.

And so he took care of that snake. I remember yet another time I was on my in-laws’ property, and there was a little creek that was going through the property.

And we went out there and I had my kids. In fact, one of my children were so small, I had them in my arms. And they were letting them play in the creek.

And then I looked down, and just from me to the goalpost there would be a five-foot, copperhead. I just heard on the radio that there’s more deaths from copperheads than there are from

rattlesnakes because they don’t warn you ahead of time that they’re going to kill you. And so I said, kids, come on over without them knowing.

And I took them back to the home. Well, nobody was there. I was on my in-laws property and I’m trying to find something to be able to take care of this snake.

So I’m looking for something very sharp and very long. So I saw the machete, sharp, not long. And so I thought, well, maybe I can duct tape it to like a garden hoe or something.

And I didn’t find the duct tape. And so finally, I looked over and I saw in the corner of the shed the utensil of choice, the gas-powered weed eater.

I said, yeah, men love gas-powered things. So I ran and got that gas-powered thing and weed eater. Now, you’re thinking, what is that little orange twine going to do for that snake?

Well, my father-in-law had taken off the orange twine and he had replaced it with a circular saw blade He was cutting down small trees and forests, you know, and it was incredible So I was going up to the snake and i’m coming up.

I didn’t want to start it too soon I’m getting closer and closer to the snake and I am just shaking and and i’m so nervous I started up and i’m going towards the snake and he got away and he probably laughed at me the entire time

When it comes to snakes i’m scared but when it comes to worms I’m okay. Have you ever heard of a colony of earthworms attacking someone?

Yesterday, a lady walked into her backyard, colony of nightcrawlers. Gruesome. No, you don’t hear that, that anyone’s attacked.

When it rains, the worms come out. They’re on the sidewalk.

If you’re not careful, you’re going to squish them before you even know. When you go fishing, you take a worm.

If it’s too long, what do you do? You pinch it in half. Use half of him

Half of him later, he doesn’t mind. And have you ever noticed the features of the nightcrawler, the earthworm? Have you ever noticed the piercing eyes, the jagged teeth?

You know, I don’t know which end is which. You don’t know if he’s coming or going. He’s just a worm.

He’s defenseless. He’s helpless. We’re going to see that a snake is the epitome of pride,

while the worm is the biblical example of humility. Are you a snake or a worm? As God is going to speak to your heart,

no doubt in these sessions throughout today, tomorrow, God wants to do a work in your heart and your life. How will you respond?

Coiled up like that snake, defending your property, defending my rights? No, this is mine.

I’m okay. Like a snake? Or will we respond defenseless,

vulnerable, and open and humble to our Savior like the worm? We see from this passage that pride keeps us from revival while humility brings us to revival and to God.

Look, if you would, the main premise of verse 6, it says, but he giveth more grace. That is God’s strength to

live the Christian life, that supernatural enabling. Wherefore he said, God resisted the proud, but giveth grace to the humble.

God resists the proud. There’s going to be a distance. There’s going to be something keeping you from the Lord, and that is pride.

Are you going to let pride, selfishness, independence, keep you from what God is going and wants to speak and work in your heart about in these couple of days.

Number one, we’re going to see that three areas. We’re going to see three areas that personal revival that pride keeps us from.

And first of all, we’re going to see in verse seven, that pride keeps us from being corrected of God. We’re going

to see in verse eight, that pride keeps us from being close to God. And then finally, in verse eight and nine pride keeps us from being cleansed of god first of all pride will keep you from being

corrected of god look if you would at verse six and seven it says but he giveth more grace wherefore he said god resists the proud but gives grace to the humble verse seven submit yourselves therefore to god resist the devil and he will flee from you submit how else can we say submit it’s

Obey. Do what you’re told. Do what you’re commanded.

Some of those times of obedience is, go do this. Other times they are, stop doing that.

No, no, no. Don’t do this. Do that over here.

Sometimes they are commands of action and doing. Sometimes they’re commands of stopping. No doubt

in this submission and obedience to God, there has to be constant correction, constant being correctable. Okay, I’m going to go over here.

No, I want you to be over here. No, I want you to stop that. Are you correctable when the Lord speaks to your heart?

Are you correctable when your authority speaks to your heart? Are you correctable when God speaks directly from his word to you? What are some areas that God perhaps will try to correct you even in the next couple of days?

Well, I think there’s some that are right in the passage that perhaps are going to be it. They all start with the letter L. Look at verse 1.

Look at verse 1. From whence come wars and fighting among you? Come they not hence even of your, what’s the word?

Lusts. Let’s say that again. Even of your lusts that warn your members.

Look at verse 2. It says ye, what’s the second word in verse 2? ye lust and have not.

Here it is, first area that perhaps God’s going to try to correct you in is your lust. What is lust? Lust is a strong desire.

Now typically, and it’s the connotation of a negative, it’s not a strong desire to do something right, to do something proper, to do something biblical or for God.

It is something that is outside the bounds that God would have. It is something that is incorrect. It is something that is not right with the Lord.

Are you full of the wrong desire? I know the importance of drinking lots of water. And so I said, you know what I’m going to do is I’m going to start carrying around this summer.

I carried around a big jug. It was like almost a gallon size. And I carried the thing.

I had a big mouth, like a big Gatorade size, you know, drinking mouth on the top. And I carried around this big gallon jug. And people were like, what are you doing?

and I’d set it on my desk and you know whenever I take a drink I’d fill up my cup then I thought you know why do I need the cup I just start drinking out of the jug so I would be at my desk in the office and someone would walk by it was rather awkward and but I I said you know I’m

going to keep this water and I noticed this when I kept the water in front of me where I could see it and it was easily accessible and I was oh there’s the water and I’m studying and oh here’s my water Might as well take another drink.

I wasn’t thinking well, I’m so thirsty. I would just see the water and then I’d have a greater desire for what was being placed in front of me. You are going to have a desire for what an appetite for what is constantly being placed in front of you.

If it is things that are incorrect and wrong and are going to be desires of the flesh, no wonder you’re sitting in church. You’re going, man, I don’t have a desire for God’s word like I ought to.

I don’t have a desire for the right type of music like I ought to. It’s because you’ve been so exposed and you’re keeping it right in front of you. Those things that are the wrong desire.

Would you place now the right type of desire? The right type of things that will be able to promote the right thoughts in your heart and your life. The right decisions then in your life.

What are the lusts and the desires of your heart that you have to say, Dear God, here’s an area that I need correction in. And I’m willing to be humble to allow you to correct me in having the wrong desires.

I see that’s a desire of the flesh that’s pulling me away from God rather than a desire of the spirit. Would you place before you those things that are right? Not only do we see lust that we need to get things taken care of, the wrong desire,

but the second area that we need to be corrected in, it starts with L also. It’s the lack of answered prayer. The lack of answered prayer.

Look, if you would, at verse 2. It says this, You lust and have not.

You kill and desire to have and cannot obtain. You fight and war, yet you have not because you ask not. Now watch this, verse 3.

You ask and receive not because you ask amiss, that you may consume it upon your lusts. Look, if you have the wrong desires,

it’s going to affect your prayer life. Some in here, you’re like, I don’t even have a prayer life.

That is exactly what verse two is talking about. You have not because you ask not. You’re not asking things of God.

You know what that’s an indication of? Pride. Because it is independence.

Some people try to smoke screen it and say, well, I don’t want to trouble God. with my little needs.

No, no, no. What you’re doing is saying, I can handle it on my own

and I don’t need God. I can live independently of him and you cannot do one thing

in your life without God. We are completely dependent upon him. But you need to have that decision to say,

dear God, I need to pray. Teenagers need to pray and see God answer their prayers.

Stop thinking that this is just for adults. This is for people that have been saved 10, 20 years. You can ask God things and he can answer.

And did you realize this? It’s not normal if you’re not getting your prayers answered. We need to have a group of teenagers and a generation of teenagers that say,

I can believe God. I can depend upon God and I can pray myself and God will answer my prayer. I don’t have to say youth group.

Would you please pray for me? I don’t have to say church. Would you please pray for me?

pastor, would you please pray for me? You can do that. And that’s an encouragement to get others to pray.

But oftentimes, why do you do that? Because you don’t think that God will hear your prayer and answer your prayer.

You’ve got to get past this stage of shallow Christianity and see it’s not normal. It’s not right to be a child of God

and not ask and have God give you things. If my child, let’s say last night, If one of my children were crying and I opened the bedroom, I said, what’s wrong?

They’re in bed and they’re crying. They said, oh, I’m just so hungry. I am so hungry.

Well, why are you hungry? I didn’t have anything to eat all day. Well, why didn’t you just ask me?

I’d be happy to give you food. I didn’t want to trouble you. I’m your father.

I’ll give you the food. Or they just say, well, you know, I just think, I don’t know. I think if I would ask, you wouldn’t do it.

How offensive that would be. That wouldn’t be a right relationship at all. My children can come and say,

Daddy, hey, I’m hungry. Can I have something to eat? Yes, you can.

Can I have some candy? No. You need to eat the right things.

You can have that. I’m going to provide their needs. It would be awkward.

It would not be normal. It would not be right to have my children go through my home, starve and be in tears because they’re not trusting me would you see you know what this is an indicator

of my pride and independence it’s a lack of answered prayer because of my lusts i’m desiring the wrong things and when i’m asking god for things it’s the wrong things it’s not even the right things i’m asking for no wonder i’m having the prayers aren’t answered and then this continues

to escalate and the third thing that god needs to correct in our hearts and our lives is not only lust not only a lack of answered prayer but a love for the world a love for the world look at verse four extremely strong language in verse four ye adulterers and adulteresses know ye not that the

what’s the next word friendship let’s say that know you not that the friendship of the world is enmity that means enemy with god whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the help me out with is the enemy of God.

If you’re going to be a friend of the world, you’re an enemy of God. He says, you’re adulterers and adulteresses.

Adulter or adulteress is someone who’s unfaithful to their spouse. Being unfaithful to God.

It’s not saying here, if you love the world, if you do that, then you’re not saved.

It’s saying, if you’re doing that, you’re being unfaithful to the God that saved you and the God that loves you.

Loving the world. What’s the world? The world system that opposes God.

the world system that is constantly going against him and this system has so many things and a propaganda and an agenda to influence your heart and steal it from god and pull it away from the lord and one of those areas is the areas of music will you not be that snake it’ll coil up and say no

i’m not going to listen you can’t have my music will you be humble and obedient and vulnerable to god to say dear god i’m willing god i did work in my heart as a teenager because the rock music i listened to it was hard rock and

and at times just a little bit of some other things like rap then i thought well you know that’s obviously wrong it’s no one in their right mind could ever defend that for something that a christian could listen to and so i thought well maybe it’s okay if i could listen to soft rock

and that’ll be better and so i listened to soft rock and the words and the lyrics and the music are just absolutely uh lust filled and only uh promoted lustful thinking i said okay well maybe maybe that’s not right.

Maybe I’ll at least I can listen to rock music. That’s Christian, Christian words and Christian terms.

And if I can do that, then that’s okay. And I had to realize, no, that’s not Christian at all. It is taking something of the world and

putting terms to it, very weak vocab and very weak lyrics and being able to put those to the wrong type of music and I finally had to say dear God I give you my music I’ve been in love with the world and this is pulling my heart away is God trying to correct you in your lust your lack of answer

prayer your love for the world what is it that God is trying to correct your heart would you allow not allow your pride to keep you from that number one not only does he keep you pride keep you from being corrected of God.

Number two, pride will keep you from being close to God. This matter of revival, what God wants to do is draw you to himself.

And this is a great promise of revival. Verse eight, this says this, James chapter four, everybody look at verse eight. I want you to read

it together with me out loud. Ready? James four, just the first sentence of verse eight.

Ready? Draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you. Is that the idea of come close to God and he will

come close to you how close are you to god right now is there a time in your life when you used to be closer to god than you are now what’s happened is you’ve taken steps away drifting from god god does not change in his holiness and his purity and his position he is god and he always will be

God what we do is we change and we drift and what we need to see is we need to revival is some of that is drawing ourselves back to God to be back and right with him will you say God I need to draw my relationship back to you and have a close relationship to you the Bible says God resists

the proud resist the proud you know what this idea of resist at first i thought well maybe it’s kind of like the idea of you know a running back he’s running and he puts out his arm he stiffs our stiffs arm uh the guy the defender and he keeps him from him well it does have the idea of your there’s

going to be a distance is there a distance between you and god would god resist you why would the the only basis because God resists the proud, the independent, the self-filled. Then he says,

when I started to understand this word has the idea of getting ready for battle. As God is getting ready for battle, not just the idea of keeping a distance, but it’s to set in battle ray against.

God is going to do battle against the one that is proud, the one that is full of pride. What you need to do is say,

Dear God, help me to draw close to you and not let my pride keep me from being distant from you. I’m going to ask, would you help me out?

What’s your name? Stephen, can you come up, Stephen? Stephen, if you could just stand right over there by the green sign,

and I’ll stand over here by the goalpost. And if we could have Stephen represent the Christian that’s drawn further away from God towards the world.

And let me represent the position of God. The promise is like this, and it’s responsive. God says, draw nigh to me, and I will draw nigh to you.

God does not change in his holiness, understand that, nor his purity in his light. He is light, and there’s no darkness at all. But the closeness and the intimacy is promised.

God will respond. So God says, take care of it. Get that thing taken care of.

But if you act and respond in pride, what you will do is you will keep a distance between you and God. Can you act prideful? That’s not very good.

Now, I know you can do better than that. Can you go ahead and fold your arms and put your nose up in the air? And as he does so, yeah, there we go.

That’s a little bit more natural, I can tell. And so he’s acting prideful. Is he going to draw closer to God at that point?

No. So God says, no, you’re going to get that pride taken care of. Let me correct you.

And the first area is your lust. It’s the wrong desires. You’re desiring things of the flesh, not of the things of the spirit.

And what I’m telling you, you’re desiring the wrong things. Will you take one giant step towards me? No, no.

Go back. Just take one step. As you take one step towards me, the truth is what God does is he responds.

And he says, okay, I’ll draw nigh to you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. When God continues to work, you say, okay, there’s my lust.

He’s showing me that. How about lack of answer prayer? I never thought about that.

I’m not right because I’m not having prayers answered. That’s right. God needs to correct you in that way.

Would you take just one step towards me? As he gets that step taken care of, he says, I’ll draw close to the Lord in prayer. God says, okay, I’ll respond.

Draw an eye to me, and I will draw an eye to you. God says, okay, how about the love for the world? there’s some things that you’re holding on to of the world

that you need to get taken care of. Would you take that step? He takes a step and he draws closer and then God responds.

And then because of that, there’s a closer intimate relationship with God. When you draw an eye to God,

he will respond and draw an eye to you. Thank you very much. You can be seated.

Not only do we see pride will keep us from being corrected of God, pride will keep us from being close to God. But this last one, teenager, is so important.

Pride will keep you from being cleansed. Being cleansed of God. When’s the last time you say, you know what?

Brother Miller, I know. I am just thoroughly right with God. I am clean.

Nothing between my soul and the Savior. You’ve been able spiritually walk out of service and go, oh, it’s so good to be right with the Lord.

there’s always something in the back of your mind going oh there’s this one area there’s the thoughts there’s my speech in my tongue there’s my anger there it is again here’s these sins what we need to see in verse eight and nine that pride keeps us from being cleansed of

god look at verse eight the bible says draw an eye to god and he will draw an eye to you then it says cleanse your hands ye sinners and purify your hearts ye double-minded be afflicted and mourn and weep let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to heaviness he says cleanse your

hands and purify your hearts now the cleanse your hands is on the outside purify your hearts is on the inside what he’s talking about is external sins and internal sins it doesn’t literally mean you go wash your hands at the sink and you’re going to spiritually be clean no it’s saying

sins on the outside sins that other people can tell your speech wrong words bad jokes inappropriate humor thank talking about opposite gender in the way you should not be talking it amazes me how open and blatant teenagers can be in their conversation about the opposite gender

and private things it is absolutely embarrassing to me as a 40 something year old married man it’s amazing here’s teenagers that are speaking these things things on the outside cleanse your hands talking about it out in the open blatant obvious getting in fights you’re in trouble at

school trouble with your siblings you’re agitated and irritated at others external sins cleanse your hands ye sinners then it says purify your hearts that’s the internal sense purity within they’re not just on the outside look good stay and suppress the things that are on the inside

that are still impure before god it is the idea of purifying you know what the idea of this purity is is one single it’s solitary it’s only if you have a hundred percent orange juice in a bottle and you look at the ingredients you know what should be in there 100 orange juice oranges

then you look and say wow there’s like 75 different ingredients 10 juice no that’s not it contains real juice. No, I want the real thing, the 100% pure.

If you put one thing in that orange juice, one speck of dirt, one other foreign object, even something that’s okay, apple juice, put a little bit of apple juice in.

It is not at that point, a hundred percent pure. Have you been that pure on the inside.

The idea is, is I am pure. I am totally, I’m solely one thing. And it’s a

love for the Lord. Are you like the oscillating fan? It goes back and forth between God and the

world. One time our air conditioner and our trailer went out and it was August and it was blazing hot.

I went to Walmart and I got some of the fans, one for our bedroom and the trailer, one for the kids’ bedroom, and these sleek fans are kind of up and down and had the remote controls and everything, and I thought, oh, that’s kind of neat.

And so we had the fan that was blowing on our bed, and specifically it was blowing mostly on me, and I asked my wife, do you want me to oscillate it?

Wrong question. She said yes. I pressed the oscillating, so it turns, and it goes towards her.

Then it goes towards me. I go, oh, it feels good. Then I go, no, no, don’t leave me, don’t leave me.

And he goes towards her. He’s blowing her, come on back. Oh, yeah, there we go.

And he goes, no, no, I wanted to stop it. Are you asleep yet? And it’s coming this way back and forth, oscillating.

In your heart, you’ve been oscillating. I do love God, and I’m in church, and my heart gets stirred. And then you get pulled towards things of the world.

Wrong type of music. God says, no, I want you to love me solely and purely focused in. Okay, I do love you, Lord, and here it is.

But, you know, just some things would be nice. Just stuff and materialism, some funds, some finances would be really good. We get focused in on these things, maybe getting a job, all these material things.

God says, no, no, what I want is you to bring your heart back around. Are you oscillating between a love for the Lord and a love for the world? Will you be pure in your heart and experience the reviving that God wants you to have?

Remember that resist. God resists the proud means to set in battle, Ray, to go and battle against. Who does someone go and battle against their friends or their enemies?

Obviously, the enemy who is say it out loud. Who is God’s enemy? Satan, right?

Wait a minute. What was Satan’s initial name? What was his first name?

He was Lucifer. He was an angel. Angel of light.

What was the sin that caused Lucifer to fall? Pride. I will be like the most high.

When we act in pride, we are acting like that snake, that serpent, Satan. When God looks at us, even as a Christian, he says, I’m getting ready to do battle because you look just like my enemy. Some of you have been battling God.

You need to say, dear God, forgive me for my pride that’s been going against you. And I don’t want my pride to stop you from working in my heart this couple of days in these services. Realize in Psalm 22 and verse 6, the Bible says, I am a worm and no man.

Despised of men and rejected. A reproach of men and despised of the people. You know what Psalm 22 is?

It’s a messianic psalm. That means it’s a psalm about our Messiah. It’s a psalm about Jesus Christ himself.

And Jesus said, I am a worm and no man. there’s nothing lower in the bible than a worm it’s just small it’s just low on any of the the scales it’s just small it’s low it’s defenseless

it’s slimy there there’s nothing glamorous about a worm it is the lowest and jesus said i’m a worm and no man. If humility was not too good

for our Lord Jesus, then it’s not too good for us. When we are acting in pride,

we’re acting like that snake, our enemy, Satan. When we’re acting in humility,

it is the life of the Lord Jesus Christ himself in us. Would you not be the snake?

Or would you say, I’ll be the worm. I’ll humble myself.

Let’s pray.