Make the Devil Run
Key Passage: James 4:7
Date: June 7, 2024
It is the last service of October. Two days from now is what the world will call Halloween. It is the devil’s high and holy day. I thought it was an appropriate verse to use on a night like this. I like to get the devil a black eye on his day. The Lord can do that. So it’s a great verse. You’ll know it. Very familiar verse.
By the way, it’s all right to hate the devil. We’re not supposed to hate anybody, but when you hate the devil—all the sin and hurt and pain in this world, every bit of it, the devil’s behind it all—it’s all right to hate the devil. I think you ought to have a good hate life towards the devil. It’s a little bitty thing, but I just cannot, when I’m typing out the word Satan or something, I just can’t capitalize Satan. It always remains lowercase. The computer wants to change it, but I go back and change it. It’s going to be lowercase. I just like to get any dig I can in on him. He’s a loser, going to hell one day. Someone said when Satan reminds you of your future, remind him of his future one day. He’s a loser, going to hell one day. We’re on the winning side, but he’s trying to take people with him. We can have victory over the devil. Amen? Amen.
Nothing wrong with us saying, “Praise the Lord. Jesus won the victory,” made His show of Him openly triumphant over in Colossae, and He lets us share in the victory He won over the devil and gave him a head blow.
You heard about the missionary. We haven’t even prayed yet; we’re preaching. But you heard about the missionary. He was out in some jungle somewhere and had a big old anaconda. They get huge snakes in there, and it is his hut. He went in there, and that big old snake was there. He was a smart missionary, had a big old .45 or something on his hip. He pulled that thing out and shot the snake right in the head. True story. Shot him in the head. Head wound, death blow. But that old snake just flip-flopped all over the place, destroyed his hut in some ways. But he’s dying the whole time. That’s exactly what Satan’s doing, amen. Christ gave him a head blow. He’s dying, but he’s flip-flopping all over the world right now.
But he’s a loser, amen. I like just saying that because that’s the truth, amen. And just a little bit tonight, James chapter number four and verse number seven: we can make the devil run. Amen. That’ll be the title for, “Make the Devil Run.” James 4 and verse number seven in God’s Word. Would you please stand tonight?
James 4 and verse number seven. The Bible says, “Submit yourselves, therefore, to God. Resist the devil.” Would you read the last part of the verse with me? Here we go: “And he will flee from you.” Wow, I like that. Amen. I like that. Help me out. Would you read that last part with me again? Would you do that again? Here we go: “And he will flee from you.”
You can make him turn and run. I mean, you make him flee. That’s what God’s Word says: “And he will flee from you.” What an awesome, awesome truth. I thought just a couple days before his day, I’ll just talk about him a little bit. Let’s make him run, amen. We can make him get on the run and run for months. What a great, great truth.
Let’s pray and ask the Lord to build our faith and grow us through this tonight. Lord, thank you for your Word. Thank you, Lord, for the sword. The devil cannot stand up to it, Lord. Thank you for the victory you’ve given us. Thank you, Jesus, that you let us share in the victory you won. Father, I do pray, would you encourage your people tonight through it? Father, take away all the distraction. Help us get our minds focused on your truth. Let us put our faith and our stock in your truth. Lord, thank you for what you do. We’re asking for this in the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen. Thank you so much for standing. You may be seated.
Let me preface this story with saying, I love dogs. I seem like I’ve had a dog ever since I was a boy. I have dogs. I love having dogs around. My wife—everyone smiles—will say, “Man, you treat those dogs mighty good.” She gave me a hard time about that. I love dogs. I got to say that at the beginning of this story.
When I was just a boy, about 12, we had a little bitty motorcycle. Who in the world put this thing right in the middle of everything? Goodness, what? Why is this in the pulpit anyway? I’m joking. But we had a little bitty motorcycle. Anybody remember back in the day the little Honda Trail 70s? Some of you know. We had those with handlebars that came up and went out like that. It was just back in the day, one of those little bitty old ones. You’d have to work on it more than you rode it. Never could crank it at the beginning; probably had bad rings in it. You’d have to push it by the kickstarter. My brother and I would wear ourselves out pushing it. If Dad or somebody was home, you might get them to pull you with the car, and that was a blessing. Once it cranked, man, it would run. We loved that thing, and we got it for just a little bit of nothing. We would have to ride that thing down to the gas station. To go to the gas station, you had to go down this dirt road off the main road because it wasn’t just a little bit of motorcycle. We’d go down this dirt road, but the only problem was there was a dog there. It’s sand, Florida, you know, so you’ve got to be careful in sand with motorcycles. This dog was a pretty good-sized dog. I can’t remember what kind of dog he was. You’d ride by his house on that dirt road, and he’s coming out. I mean, he’s—that’s how I lost fingers, folks, I’ll tell you what. Don’t. He’d take an ankle out or whatever he’d get a hold of while you’re riding that motorcycle.
One time we went to get gas, and my brother—I got a brother a year and a half older than me, got a younger brother too—he was driving. I was on the back. That dog took off. Big dog. You look down, those teeth are showing. I mean, just not a good sight. He’s trying to get a hold of a leg or something. I just happened to think, “I’ve got a full tank of gas in my hands.” Brother Frank was thinking ahead. All of a sudden, that gas can kind of turned over right where his mouth was coming from my leg. Some of that gas just happened to pour right on his face. Instead of—oh! And that dog just turned and went back up onto his house, amen. I enjoyed making that dog flee, amen.
Hey, the Bible says we submit to God, resist the devil, and he will flee. You pour gas on his face. Amen. I don’t know about the gas part, but they flee from you; that’s in the Bible.
Billy Sunday used to say, God used Billy Sunday to close down a lot of bars. He said, “If I can find the devil, I’d hit him as long as I had fists. Then if I run out of fists, I’d kick him until I had no feet. And then I’d bite him until I had no teeth. And I’d gum him to death.” Amen.
Friend, it’s all right to say, “Hey, the devil will flee from you,” not to worry about anything, but hey, we’re on the winning side, amen. I know who’s already beat him, and he’s dying because of Jesus Christ. The Bible says, “For God’s not giving us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” I say, as the Bible says, I’m to fear the Lord Jesus Christ, but I don’t fear old smutty face because I’m on His side. I can be under the feather—I’m one of those little hens together underneath His wings, amen—and call upon the Lord in the day of trouble. He shall deliver thee. I’ve got the promises of God, amen. There is strength, there is power with the Lord to beat the devil where he will flee from you.
Now, what’s the formula? Let’s look at the formula real quickly tonight. Number one thing, James 4:7—what’s the first thing we’ve got to do? Submit yourselves therefore to God.
Now, that may mean that we’re at a situation or circumstance in our life we don’t particularly like, but God’s allowing it in our life. You may say, “Well, I’ve been wanting to get a bigger, better, nicer car, and God’s not allowed it so far.” Or it may be physical problems. It may be surgery coming up, whatever it may be. It may be financial stress. It may be relationship problems. Whatever it is, the first part of the formula is: God says, “Submit yourselves, therefore, to God.” I cannot get to the point where I’m pouring gas on the devil’s face until I start with submitting to God.
By the way, so many things can be said there: submitting to the circumstances of your life, submitting to His Word. Are any of us perfect at obeying that book? No, not one of us here. But we can submit it and say, “Lord, I sure want to. I’m trying. I’m not in open rebellion against it. I’m not trying to go against it. I’m trying to yield to that book and the standards and convictions.” By the way, no matter what they say, there is a whole lot of “thou shalt” and “thou shalt not” in the book, amen. They can try to weed it out all they want, but it’s still in there, black and white, friend. “Abstain from all appearance of evil.” There’s a whole lot of them in there, all over. That’s in the New Testament, by the way, too. They’re just all over the place. And I submit to the Lord and to His Word and to His will for my life, to what’s going on in my life.
I’ve said this often, but when I first lost my fingers—when that dog bit them off, you know. But I’m teasing; it was years later I lost my fingers. When I first—at first I was all right, but a little bit later on, when I kind of got out of the first stage of it, and I was trying to get back into the regular routine of life. For a while, I wore Velcro shoes everywhere I went, just easy to tie. But you’re trying to get back to the regular routine of life, the regular flow of life. I often say this, and it is a good list, it is true, but I never forget one of the first times I played basketball after I lost my fingers. Everything’s different. I used to dribble with my right hand, basically. You can’t dribble real good with three fingers, whatnot. I can handle all that somewhat, but then my shoe came untied in the middle of a ballgame. It’s just embarrassing for guys to stand around waiting for you to tie your shoes for five minutes. Who in the world wants to say, “Hey, buddy, can you tie my shoe for me?” I’ll tie it; give me some time. I’m going to tie my own shoe. But you start to get back to the regular routine of life and you start figuring out, “Man, this is the way it’s going to be for life.” It’s just everything’s going to be a little different. And you start thinking, “Man, this isn’t like a month-long or a year-long battle. This is lifelong.” I had difficulties at that stage for a while. It was a good day for me when basically I submitted, “All right, God, you’ve got a reason for this. I’m not saying I like it. I’m not saying it’s wonderful, but you have a reason, and I’m going to submit to be like this for the rest of my life.” It’s a good thing for me. That’s part of the plan: “Submit yourselves, therefore, to God.”
I think about—I’ve told this story before. It’s been a while. It’s story number 78, remember that one? About a very, very godly lady. She can be a great prayer warrior. She went through it just a time—a relative of mine, we’ll just say that—lives in a distant state. She said one night she just seemed like the devil was oppressing her like she’s never had in all her life. In the middle of the night, the devil was just on her. She couldn’t sleep. You ever just feel like you’re battling major spiritual warfare? She said, “Like I’ve never had.” She was sweating all over, and she was in a battle, a spiritual battle. It was to the point where she was keeping her husband awake. So, if I remember right, she went to another room, or he went to another room. Her husband was frustrated to keep it away because she said it was just a battle she’d never experienced anything like it—just the presence and the oppression of the devil and his demons.
She thought of this verse—the Holy Spirit, I imagine, brought it up to her mind: “Submit yourselves therefore to God.” She said, “Paul, I just started submitting to everything in my life.” She said, “I submitted to my husband, to him being the head of the wife. I submitted where they were having some problems in the church they were going to. She said, I submitted to the pastor and his leadership there. She submitted to some circumstances in her life. I just started submitting.” It took hours and hours. I don’t know if she ever got to sleep that night or not, but she said she was amazed when she really started following the formula. The more she submitted to God and the authority He had in her life and things going on in her life, the more power she had to resist. If I bypass step number one, I’m no match on my own for the devil. But the formula, “Submit yourselves, therefore, to God”—when she just submitted it, and went through so many different things in her life, the more she submitted to God, the more power she had to do step number two.
Praise the Lord, the old devil, he will flee from you. I like that thought, amen. Sometimes I’ve told the Lord in the past—I’ve done it a whole lot here lately, but I used to tell the Lord a lot—I said, “Hey, Lord, before you throw the devil in the pit, would you hold him down? Let me go over there and just hit him one time.” It might not hurt him, but it’s going to make me feel a whole lot better. You get a kick or something in on me. It’s all right to hate the devil, you know. The Bible says he will flee from you. I love that truth. It’s a wonderful, wonderful thing, but it starts with submitting yourselves, therefore, to God.
Then, resist. Let’s talk about resisting for just a bit tonight. By the way, you can’t have a victory without a battle. You’re just not going to have it. Sometimes we just want a life of ease, no battles. How about when we get to heaven one day and we had a life of ease? How about we say, “Hey, Joseph, how you doing over there?” We think about how Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery, and Potiphar’s wife lied about him. Then he ended up in prison. After a while there, a couple years, he thought about the baker and the butler, interpreted the dream, but then the butler forgot about him for two years. Psalm 105 says he had wounds, if you will, because of the stocks on his feet. How about we tell Joseph, “Well, we just had a life of ease for the Lord Jesus”? No. If you’re going to do anything for the Lord, there’s going to be battles. That’s just part of it for Him.
How about old Paul? He was shipwrecked and spent a night out in the deep. How about old Paul? Five times he was beaten by the rods. Paul, one time he was stoned and then drug outside the city of Lystra and left for dead because they had stoned him so bad with the big old rocks, throwing them down on his head trying to kill him. They thought he was dead. Paul said, “I bear in my body the marks.” How about telling him, “Paul, well, I had a life of ease”? No, friend. If you’re going to do anything, if you’re going to have a good, godly family, if you’re going to raise children for the Lord, if you’re going to do those things, you’re going to have a battle, and there’s going to have to be this part of the formula: resisting the devil. That’s just part of it.
We want a life of ease—everything in luxury, everything easy. But, friend, it doesn’t work like that if you do something for God. Talk to old Job about that. He didn’t just lose one child; he lost 10 children in one day. Wow. All of his children. And then he lost his finances. I wonder if they were coming to collect it, and I wonder if they were going to take his house from him, you know, because he had so much debt. He lost his finances, lost his health. The old devil said, “Skin for skin. You won’t let me touch his body.” So the Lord said, “All right, touch his body.” He lost his servants. He lost his most trusted comforter, as far as a person and courage, as close as one of his partners for life. He lost his wife’s confidence for a while when she said, “Curse God and die.” She’s grieving too, but the honest truth is she said, “Well, just curse God and die.” How about we tell him, “Well, we had it pretty easy in 2023”? Somebody took the tract I gave them and threw it on the ground. Isn’t that so rough? We’ll talk to Job about that one day. Friend, there is going to be the part of resisting the devil. It’s going to be a fight. I love old Russ Boulden. He used to say, “It’s a battlefield, brother, not a recreation room. It’s a fight and not a game. Run if you ought to, run if you will, but I came here to stay.” That’s a battle. There’s going to be the part of resisting the devil.
I love what Hebrews 12 says: “He who has not resisted unto blood striving against sin.” It’s hunting season right now, and some of our men have been out there. I think they’ve gotten some. Some have shot at some, got some fur. Those experienced, good hunters, they’re going for that big rack. They want to mount that on the wall. Hey, let me say something here: If the devil’s shooting at you and you’re right in the middle of the battle and you’ve got to resist the devil, hey, just say, “Praise the Lord, he’s shooting at me a little bit. Must mean I might be a little bit of a buck.” It’s part of it. That’s what the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 10:13: “There is no temptation taking you such as is common to man.” Don’t get to put your lips up and say, “Well, nobody knows how bad I have it.” Hey, other Christians are going through the same thing. Resist the devil. It’s going to be a fight. Jesus Christ won the victory, but He says, “Hey, I invite you to share in the battle.” You resist the devil.
Let’s look over in 2 Corinthians chapter 10. You know the verse. Just talk about resisting the devil. There’s a battle to be fought. There’s going to be rough times. There’s going to be tears shed. There’s going to be bloodshed. It’s going to hurt. You’re going to bleed sometime. There’s going to be fiery darts shot at you. But watch this, 2 Corinthians chapter 10, verse number 4: “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal.” I’m not talking about you going to fight with that so-and-so that said something about you. No, our weapons are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds.
You ever hear the fellow—I know karate and Taekwondo and all the rest of that, and seven other Japanese words. Another fellow pulls out some big gun and he says, “Well, I know there’s a .38 right here.” That’s kind of us, friend. Our weapons are mighty through God. The old devil, he fights a fleshly battle, but we have mighty, mighty weapons. You say, “Well, you’re talking about the shield of faith to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.” I like that. Quench all the fiery darts. It’s fiery; it’s going to burn. By the way, quenching all the fire doesn’t mean it doesn’t stick in there and hurt; it’ll hurt, but you still quench the fire. Fire is what burns it down.
What’s the only offensive weapon over there in Ephesians chapter six? Unless you use your shield to hit him over the head or something. The main offensive weapon you got is the sword, amen. Get you some Bible verses, memorize some, quote some. “Hey, I’m going to hold on to that verse right there.” That’s our weapons. Get that sword, the sword of the Spirit. Say, “Holy Spirit, guide me to the right verse. Give me something as I read your Word this morning. Give me a verse to hang on to through this trial, through this fire that the devil is sending my way.” Use that weapon. It’s the offensive weapon you and I have: it’s the Word of God. Christ used it; He said, “It is written.” Use the Bible against him. Don’t get carnal. Don’t get proud. I’m not trying to act like we’re all that, but we serve the One who is all that. Use the weapons of God.
Get the shield of faith. God’s going to do something here. Don’t let the devil get your faith; that’s your protection. The shield of faith quenches all the fiery darts. And get the Bible out. And there was us over there, that bottom part: “Praying always with all prayer and supplication.” I tend to think that prayer is a little bit of exercise. A soldier, if he’s got all his armor—helmet, breastplate, loins, feet, shield, sword—and he’s out of shape, he’s not going to be real effective. I tend to think prayer is a little bit of that exercise: praying always with all prayer and supplication. That’s our weapons. When the battle comes on, don’t get into self-reliance; get into the Lord. “Lord, I’ve got to have Your help.”
My wife and I met with someone yesterday who is going through a very difficult time, a life crisis. They said, “I’m praying all the time.” I said, “Praise the Lord, you’re praying all the time.” Tears, always—it’s something like, “God, You’ve got to help me.” So, praise the Lord, you’re reaching out to the Lord all the time. That’s where it ought to be. That’s the weapons we have; they’re mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. When Satan starts shooting at you, get your prayer calls in. You say, “I’m so weary. I don’t think I can take another step.” What do you say over there in Luke 18? “That men ought always to pray and not to faint.” Am I fainting? Why? Because I’m not praying. What I say is over there: “But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.” Amen. They shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint while they are waiting on the Lord. How do you do that? A great way to do that is in prayer. Just pray.
There’s going to be this thing of resisting the devil. That’s part of it. If somebody made you mad, they said something, they hurt you, they’re lying about whatever—pray for them. That’s what Job did when his friends started talking about him. He started talking back with self-righteousness, but eventually God said, “Hey, Job, let me talk to you for a bit.” And then God said, “Hey, Job, start praying for those people right there.” That’s when God turned the captivity of Job. Those are our weapons. There’s going to be a battle. If anybody finds out how to detour around the battle, we’d all like to know about it, but friend, there’s no way around it. Resting times are in heaven one day. We’ll sit at His feet, but hey, we’re in a battlefield, brother. We’re right in the middle of it. We’re going on against the devil, and you’re right in the middle of it because you’re the apple of God’s eye. He loves you, so Satan’s going after you. He’s our adversary. Pray, Lord Jesus brought the victory.
This formula here: “Submit yourselves, therefore, to God.” That’s part one. You’ve got to submit. You won’t have the power to resist if you don’t submit. Submit. Submit. Submit yourselves, therefore, to God, and then resist.
Bill Rice, who is in heaven, wrote a book. One of his books talks about his dog. I can’t remember the dog’s name. I want to say maybe he called that dog Lucky, if I remember correctly, but I’m not sure about that part. He said that dog wasn’t real big, about a medium-sized dog. He said, but he lost every fight he got into. He had one ear that had been sliced open, a slit in it. He had one eye that was messed up, had patches where the fur wouldn’t grow because he’d gotten into so many fights and lost them. He said, but that dog would never, ever back down from a fight, no matter how big the animal was. That dog was not going back down from a fight.
We’re not going to win every fight because of our human frailty. By the way, when we fall, He won’t let us be utterly cast down; He’ll hold us up with His right hand (Psalm 37). I like to be like that dog. The Lord says, you know, they won’t back down from a fight for the devil. I like to be like that dog: “All right, devil, I’m going to submit to God. I’m going to resist.”
Just reminiscing a little bit. In the last storefront we had, they were trying to open up a bar down there by city code. It shouldn’t happen. We went to City Hall and spoke there a couple times. Some of you were with us. They ended up putting the bar in, but several people said it was good to see a Baptist church fighting liquor. Amen. Pray, Lord, I hope we always have the fight in us to fight the devil and what he’s doing. By the way, they got the bar in, but we got people in our church through it. Old Del Stover was in our church for years. He started coming because he read in the paper—the paper actually quoted part of that thing right when one of those meetings said, “Hey, I’ll give you 44 good reasons why not to put the bar in there.” We had 44 minors in the church that Sunday before, and they actually quoted that part. Del Stover said, “Well, I thought that was a little mom-and-pop Tennessee church.” Well, there might be doing something. He visited our church, became a member, and was a good man of our church for years and years. God takes care of you when you fight the devil. Let’s always have that little bit of that in us. We’re not fighting people, not proud and cocky, but there ought to be the thing in us that just says, “You know what? I’m going to submit to God, and I’m going to resist that old devil, that whole smutty face.” He might get some licks in on me, but I’m going to fight. It’s part of it. “Submit yourselves, therefore, to God. Resist the devil.”
I like that last little line. Help me out. Would you help me finish out that last part of that verse? Here we go: “And he will flee from you.” I like that.
When I was a boy, it’s funny—all these stories today about the same time. I was about 12 at Lake City Baptist Temple, and I think it was VBS. It was just a small little church, a lot of toddlers. We had kids all in there. The preacher was teaching this verse: “Submit yourself therefore to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”
I was the devil. Can you believe that? I had a little devil mask. I still remember that rubber mask; those things are hot. I’d be hiding behind the piano or something, and the preacher would be out there. I’d come out going to get the preacher, and the preacher would act like he wouldn’t see me. The kids started screaming, “Ah, the devil! The devil!” The preacher didn’t know, “What are you screaming about?” I’d sneak up behind the preacher. Praise the Lord, he was a short fellow, amen, because I was just a teenage boy. Some of the workers would say, “Hey, what are we supposed to do?” And they’d start singing that song: “Submit yourself therefore to God, resist the devil, and he will flee.”
When they started singing that, the devil couldn’t take it; he can’t stand up to the Bible. I’d have to run back in the back and hide. Sure enough, a little bit later on the program, the preacher’s up there teaching, and I’d sneak out, little devil sneak out. “Ah, there’s a devil!” The preacher, “What are you talking about?” And somebody would say, “Hey, we got to sing, boys and girls,” and they’d start singing. He says, “Submit yourself therefore to God, resist the devil, and he will—I can’t take that.” A lot of truth in that: he will flee from you.
Here’s a neat thing. In warfare, when the enemy’s on the retreat, you can inflict a lot of damage. That’s the time to open up on them. God’s been awfully good to our church this year. Praise the Lord for it. I thought about this: For over 40-plus years, I heard so many times, “They’ll never overturn Roe versus Wade.” But praise the Lord, they gave it back to the states, amen. A whole lot of states. They said it never happened. Praise the Lord.
I like this. We just got, as far as we can tell, a pretty good Christian Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson. I like that. He carried his Bible up there, had men praying over him, talked in his speech about Romans 13 scripture, talked about his wife being on her knees praying for him for two weeks. This is an interesting thing. As far as I can tell, it’s factual. If it’s not blaming on Brother Adam, I got it from him. Brother Adam knew that was coming, didn’t he? Let me read it before you, though. I love it. Just talking about when the devil’s on the run, you can gain some territory. Pastor Chad Chavin wrote this: “Mike Johnson was the first Sunday school teacher I had as a new Christian when he lived in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, this was the year 2000. He taught Sunday school from the Bible rather than using a workbook. On Halloween, the devil’s day, he invited me and the other college students to go door-to-door passing out gospel tracts and sharing the gospel with his neighbors. It was also my first glimpse into what a truly godly household looked like as he and his wife were expecting their first child. His brief mentorship lasted a few months before they moved back to Shreveport, that he and Kelly left a godly impression on me that I carry into my ministry today. It’s surreal that he is now Speaker of the House, a true gift of mercy from the Lord.”
Hey friend, I’m just saying, with the devil on the run, pray, Lord, that’s time to gain some territory, amen. Praise the Lord for it. We’ve had—I don’t know the number, but it’s well over 100 people saved this year. Praise the Lord for that. One of the best years of people getting baptized. Praise the Lord for that.
That property over there—I used to think, “There’s no way we can buy that property.” When we first began to talk about it with one of our deacons on the phone years ago—he’s not with us anymore—we were like, “Do you think we could ever buy that property?” Well, it’ll be God. Praise the Lord, through God’s power and His grace, we not only bought it, but it’s paid for. Praise the Lord when the devil’s on the run, that’s the time that God gained some ground for us—people being saved. One of our men, a good man, very humble, said, “Pastor, I’ve been in this church about four years. Some of my kids were agnostic, and they’re saved now, baptized. My marriage is so much better.” I’m just saying, friend, praise the Lord. There’s a battle to be fought: “Submit yourselves, therefore, to God. Resist the devil.” And when the devil’s running, praise the Lord, good things are happening.
Sunday school over doubled this year. That means it’s doubled. I pulled in Thursday night to teach in the Bible Institute. I wasn’t here for the first two sessions; I just taught the last one, and I was rejoiced. I hadn’t taught it in a good while. I pulled into the parking lot Thursday night, and I was shocked. The parking lot was fairly full, just the main part. Praise the Lord. What a blessing. Hey, for Him, there’s a battle to be fought, but there’s victory on the other side. He will flee from you.
Help me out. I’m not a good singer. Help me out. Those of you who know it, know how to sing it, sing it. How many ever sang that song before, that verse? All right, good. You’ve got to help me out, those of you who know it. Here we go. Everybody sing with me. Here we go: “Submit yourself therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Submit yourself therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.”
Would you bow your heads, please? You said, “Preacher, I need to submit.” I need to submit to the situation, the circumstances where I’m at in life. God spoke to my heart. I need to submit to the things that are going on. I need to submit to His Word. I need to submit to being a godly Christian. Preacher, God spoke to my heart. I just need to submit to God who’s working in my life tonight. That’s you. Slip your hand up. “Preacher, I need to submit. I need to submit to God and what He has going on in my life.” Oh, me too. Me too. There are always unpleasant things. God has a reason; He’s working, and I submit. God bless you. Many, many hands. God bless you for that.
Maybe here tonight you say, “Preacher, I just need to accept that there’s a resisting part. I need to strive against sin unto blood. I need to be willing to just fight the battle.” You get weary; all of us get weary, but don’t faint. Don’t faint. I need to use the weapons. God spoke to my heart. I need to be in this saying resisting the devil, using the weapons God has given. God spoke to my heart about that. That’s you tonight. Slip your hand up. “That’s me. That’s me.” God bless you. That’s good. Thank you for letting the Lord work in your heart. God bless you. That’s awesome. Would you please stand? Let’s just spend some time. Lord, I want to submit to You. Help me to use the weapons You made available. Help me to resist, and He will. Maybe just put your faith back in the promise: He will flee from you. Father, Lord, encourage Your people with Your truth. Lord, help us to put our faith, our stock in Your promise. Help us to submit, resist. Thank You, Lord, for Your promise, that He will flee from you. Bless our people these few minutes in Jesus’ name we ask. Amen.
To be a godly Christian, there’s going to be battles. Our young folks—see our young folk across here—if you live for the Lord, you’re going to be kind of swimming upstream. You’re going to stick out like a sore thumb, which is part of it. Christians have done this in the past, and they’ll do it to the end, but it’s worth it. You submit, resist, and there’s victory. Parents raising you, there’s going to be, “I’m too strict,” and somebody going to say this, that, or other. That’s just part of it. There’s going to be battles. Submit, resist, He’ll flee, amen. And He brings the victory. So glad you’re in church tonight.
Pray for Brother Larry Mr. Sin. He usually stays over there in Arkansas, I believe it is. Remember, he’s got just a bad UTI infection and other things. He had to go to the ER today. We got him on some medicine; pray he’ll perk up if you would, and they appreciate your prayers on that. Amen. Amen, Brother Adam. Amen. Come on, brother.
Original File: Pastor Paul Chisgar - Make the devil run - Sunday PM 10292023