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Dr. Tony Evans: When it comes to drawing near to God, you have to treat sin seriously. It is sin that keeps us at a distance.

Guest (Male): This is The Alternative broadcast, featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr. Tony Evans.

The Declaration of Independence talks about the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. But pursuing something is no guarantee you’ll get it. Well, today Dr. Evans helps us find ways to make our pursuit of God more successful. Let’s turn to James chapter four as we join him.

Dr. Tony Evans: There are three things you must do—I must do—to remove ourselves from the staining effect of this world. Number one, verse seven: "Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you." The first thing you must do not to be a worldly Christian is to submit to God.

This is a military term and it meant to get yourself in your proper ranking. It meant to surrender yourself to your legitimate authority, to get in the proper pecking order. This word "submit" is used throughout the Bible. Christians, for example, are told to submit to government. That is, to submit or place themselves under their government to the degree that the government is legitimate and it is requiring legitimate things.

A wife is told to submit to the authority of her husband to the degree that he is submitted himself to the authority of Christ. Children are told to submit to parents as long as the parental authority is not requiring rebellion against God. So, submitting had to do with alignment, realigning your life under God.

When he calls on a Christian to submit, he is saying to realign yourself under the authority of God. The first thing you need, which many of us need with our cars, is an alignment. Now, all of us here have had alignments in our cars. When our car is out of alignment, you don't always see it. You don't always feel it.

But one of the sure ways to know that your car needs an alignment is to have your front tires checked. Because when they check your front tires, they can look at the wear and tear, the uneven distribution of the wearing of the tread to determine that you do not have a tire problem per se. You have an alignment problem that is the cause of the uneven wear of the tread, particularly on your front tires.

Many of our lives today, we are looking at our lives and we're seeing our tread wear fast. We're seeing the lines of our lives unbalanced, out of kilter, and uneven. We're seeing more defeat than we are victory. We're seeing that we are unable to cope and deal with the day-to-day realities of life, and so we spend time changing tires.

Every month or two, we feel like we need a new spiritual tire. Maybe what you need, however, is not your spiritual tire to be changed. Maybe you need an alignment. Because you see, no matter how many new tires you put on the front of the car, if your alignment is off, you're going to wear out the new tire just like you wore out the old.

You can change tires 52 Sundays out of the year, but if you don't get your alignment fixed, you're still going to be worn out as a believer. Many of our marriages are being worn down and you think you've got a tread problem when there is an alignment problem. Many of our personal lives are being worn down and you want to change tires—you want to change churches, you want to change environments—but you may have an alignment problem.

He says realign, or to put it in the exact interpretation of the meaning of the word, reorient your ranking under God. You have displaced yourself from the authority of God. What does that mean practically? It means to say on a day-by-day basis, "Not my will, but Thy will be done." It is to say, "I am willing to subject my desire to Your desire, my dreams to Your dreams, my purposes to Your purposes, my plans to Your plans, my hopes to Your hopes."

It is to utterly abandon oneself to God. Until that happens, we will not be aligned properly to be able to do the second phase of this, which is to resist the devil. What He calls us to is a decision to leave the world and come under the ranking of God. Now, God will help you. God will empower you to make the decision, but what God will not do is to make the decision for you.

So, to submit to God is a conscious decision to stand against the world—that this world order that leaves God out no longer will have dominating influence over my life anymore. You must decide that as a believer in Jesus Christ. God will help you do it, but He will not make the decision to do it for you.

One of the things we need to know about the devil is he is not invincible. The death of Jesus Christ solved that. He has been rendered, Hebrews 2 says, powerless. So now he must whip you by deception because he no longer can whip you by power. Once you come to Jesus Christ, the devil can no longer make you do anything.

He can trick you into doing it. He can tempt you to want to do it. But as a believer in Jesus Christ, he can no longer make you do anything. So that's why you cannot blame the devil for what you do. Secondly, draw near to God. Verse eight: "Draw near to God."

Drawing near has to do with increasing intimacy. It has to do with snuggling up close to. It means if you're going to beat the world and become a vibrant, strong Christian, you cannot have a long-distance relationship with God. You cannot be a part-time Christian. You cannot be a "smoke Sunday morning only" saint.

This must be a lifestyle occupation. It must be an orientation whereby you draw near. The Apostle John's word for drawing near was to "abide," to come close to. The closer you get to God, the more God rubs off on you. Like being in a hot sun, the longer you're in the sun, the more the sun will rub off on you and you're going to sweat. You don't have to make the sun make you sweat; you just have to be close to it. The closer you are to the sun, it's going to rub off on you. He says, "Draw near."

Guest (Male): Dr. Evans will have more on the pursuit of God when he returns in just a moment. Before he does, though, I want to tell you about our current featured resource. It’s Dr. Evans' encouraging 30-day devotional, *Trusting God in Turbulent Times*. When life feels uncertain and the future seems unclear, it’s easy to respond with fear, frustration, or confusion.

But this devotional will help you find comfort and strength in God’s faithfulness through daily scripture readings, practical insights, and biblical encouragement for life’s toughest seasons. We want you to have the *Trusting God in Turbulent Times* devotional to help reinforce your faith when the going gets tough.

So, we’ll send you a copy as our thank-you gift when you make a contribution to support our work here on the air and around the world. Along with it, we’ll also include all 16 lessons in Tony’s current two-volume series, *James: Time to Grow Up*, available on CD, USB flash drive, or instantly downloadable MP3s. Get all the details at tonyevans.org before this limited-time offer runs out. That’s tonyevans.org, or call 1-800-800-3222. I’ll repeat that contact information for you after part two of today’s lesson and this.

Dr. Tony Evans: On the Unbound Podcast with Dr. Tony Evans, guests bring resonant stories and perspective insights to help you live with clarity and purpose. Whatever you love controls you. Nothing is stable except God and His truth. Listen to conversations about faith and the Bible in the context of our modern day. Unbound means unhindered. The Word of God is not bound. Unbound with Dr. Tony Evans. Listen now.

Guest (Male): You can hear the Unbound Podcast on your favorite podcast platform. Right now, let’s get back to Dr. Evans in James chapter four as he continues our lesson on the pursuit of God.

Dr. Tony Evans: Well, what does it mean? What do I have to do to draw near? Look at the second half of verse eight: "Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; purify your hearts, you double-minded." You cannot draw near without dealing seriously with sin. It is sin that keeps us at a distance.

"Cleanse your hands, ye sinners." He's talking about Christians here because non-Christians can't cleanse their hands. They need to be cleansed by the blood of Christ. He's talking about Christians here who are functioning like sinners. There's a third thing you must do: humble yourself before God. Verse 10: "Humble yourself in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you."

Here is another great promise. If you submit, you'll be able to resist. If you draw near, He'll draw near to you. If you humble yourself under Him, which brings back the concept of submission—reorienting your ranking under God—guess what? He will lift you up.

You see, some of our problem is we've been too busy lifting ourselves up. And if you're going to lift yourself up, why must God do any lifting? You're good enough to take care of you. What does it mean to humble yourself? It means to remove all fragments of pride.

In the Bible, the great men of God who were taken up were always taken down first. Joseph was taken down to Egypt, put in jail, and then he became king of Egypt. Moses was put out in the wilderness, and then he became leader of Israel. On and on and on. David had to hang out with the sheep before he could be king.

They had to have experienced "down" before God could trust them to lift them up. The greatest Bible teacher in the Bible, Paul the apostle, had to spend three years in the desert humbled before God before God would lift him up. If you want God to raise you up in usefulness, raise you up in power, raise you up in victory, raise you up in strength, you have to go low.

Why? Because there's not room for two Gods in this universe, that's why. See, if you can raise yourself up, then go be God all by yourself. But if you can't raise yourself up and you're in desperate need of God, then what you do is you go low.

When you need mercy, you say "please." When you need mercy, you say "please." You humble yourself. There is no place for arrogance when sinful men approach a holy God and say, "Come near." It's "Come near, please, Master, won't you?"

There must be humility if God is going to raise you up, and that means the eradication of pride. God's elevator to the top always starts going down. You say, "That's vague. Give me something I can put my teeth into." He knew you were going to ask that question. That's why he wrote verses 10 and 11. Let me read them.

"Do not speak against one another, brethren." He's talking to Christians. "He who speaks against a brother or judges his brother speaks against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you're not a doer of the law, but you are a judge of the law. There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But who are you to judge a neighbor?"

He says, "Okay, let me give you an illustration of what humility means. You will always discover humility in how you talk, especially how you talk about somebody else." He says because one of the ways we play God is with our tongue. One of the ways we act like we think we're God is with our tongue. Because he says we use our tongues to destroy one another.

He raises the sin of slander as an illustration of his point of humility. These verses are not unrelated to what's gone before. He is saying humble yourself, and that's going to show up in how you speak. Because instead of you having a malicious tongue that drags people down, because you yourself have already gone down and recognize if it wasn't for the grace of God, you'd be stomped out, you don't use your tongue to drag other people down because you're already down there with them.

How dare you use your tongue to slander somebody else down when if God ever used His tongue, you'd never get up? How can you use your tongue and say "John Doe is worth nothing, he's no good, I'm going to tear him down," when God says you can't even draw near to me because of the sin in your own life?

If you would spend more time with the sin in your life, you'd have less time to be talking about sin in somebody else's life. He says slander, which is to speak evil. To slander is to tear down another person's reputation in a destructive or non-constructive way.

Now, let me clarify something very quickly here. Slander does not mean you skip sin, okay? Judging does not mean you don't deal with sin. The Bible says you are to deal with sin. The Bible says in Titus 3:10 that we are to deal with sin. 1 Corinthians 5, we are to confront brothers who are sinning. That's not slander.

Slander is talking to everybody else but that brother. Slander is saying John Doe is messed up and John Doe never gets to hear from you that you love him enough and care for him enough to try to help him out of the mess. I want 300 other people to know that John Doe is going to the dogs so that John Doe will look bad in front of all those other people.

He says, "Well, people still do it and I don't see the big deal." Well, now you've broken the law because the law is that you're to love God with all your heart, mind, might, and soul, and love your neighbor as yourself. That's what the law is summed up in two.

In fact, the whole Ten Commandments are really commandments of love. "No other God." Well, that means love can't be fickle; it must be single-minded. Commandment number two: "No idols." That means love must be loyal in its practice. Commandment number three: "Do not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain." That means love must be respectful and not use things in an empty way.

Commandment number four: "Remember the Sabbath, keep it holy." That means love must be devoted with its affections. Commandment number five: "Honor your father and mother." That means love must be submissive to a legitimate authority. Commandment number six: "You shall not murder." That means love should value other people and not try to see their demise.

Commandment number seven: "Do not commit adultery." Love is to be pure and not defiled. Commandment number eight: "Do not steal." That means love is not to be selfish and take from others what belongs to them. Commandment number nine: "Do not bear false witness." Love must be truthful and not tell lies. Commandment number 10: "Thou shalt not covet." Love must be content and thankful for what you have.

Love is built into the Ten Commandments. It is the commandments of love, stated in a negative way. Turn your Bibles very quickly to Matthew chapter seven. This gives you the proper balance about judging people, because you've heard people say "Well, the Bible says don't judge." Well, not quite.

"Do not judge, lest you be judged. For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you. And why do you look at the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' and behold, the log is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye."

The issue in the Bible is not "don't judge," it is "watch how you judge." You see, because how you judge will be the basis of how you will be judged. If you destroy somebody else destructively, guess what? God says what goes around comes around.

And while they may need to be corrected for wrong, which we should do, while they should be condemned for wrong, the judging should always be to build up and they should be with the log removed from your eye. Because if you have a tree trunk sitting outside your optics, there is no way you can see a speck in somebody else's eye.

So, fix you first before you judge because when you judge, it will be measured to you. Now what's the problem with wrong judging? He tells you verse 12. There is only one Lawgiver, the Judge. There's only one God, and you're not Him. He is dealing with righteous judgment, biblical judgment, clear judgment, judgment that is humble.

That's why the Bible says, "Take heed, he who thinks he stands, lest he falls." See, when you say "Look at what John Doe did," God says, "Watch it. Watch it because don't you know that that's a possibility in you, too? Don't you know if you were born on the right side of town under the right set of circumstances, that could be you?"

And when you understand that could be you, you humble yourself. In the Bible, the story is told by way of application of two Jews who went to the temple. The Pharisee said, "I thank You I'm not like other men." Luke 18: "I thank You I'm not immoral. I thank You that I'm not a thief. I thank You that I'm not like them dogs out there. I just want to thank You that I'm not like everybody else."

And then the publican, the thief, came in and beat his chest, the Bible says, and said, "Oh God, have mercy on me! I am a sinful man. Have mercy on me! I have done all of those things and I need mercy." And Jesus says, "I tell you what. That evil publican went away justified. But that Pharisee went away condemned even though he hadn't done any of those things because the man who thinks he's high will be brought low, but the man who goes low will be lifted high."

You say, "But wait a minute, Pastor. I haven't drawn near, I haven't submitted, and I've been a little bit too proud. Is it too late?" Well, you know, in football they have halftime. You know what you do at halftime? You go in and get things straight. You find out what's been causing you to lose and you readjust your strategy.

No matter how many points the other team has scored at halftime, you can always come out of halftime with hope. You know why? Because it means at least that many points can be scored in one half. It's just now your turn to score. Your home team may have booed you because the other team got up on you.

But let me tell you something about halftime. At halftime, you don't listen to the crowd. You listen to the coach. And no matter what anybody else is saying about you, the coach is saying, "Let's go back out on the field and win this game." Jesus Christ is calling you to the second half. Let's live the second half for God and not for this world.

Guest (Male): Dr. Tony Evans, encouraging us to make a clear commitment to God regardless of what the world is telling us. Today’s lesson, "The Pursuit of God," is part of Tony’s series called *James: Time to Grow Up*. There are 16 full-length messages in this two-volume collection, containing bonus content we won’t have time to present on the air.

As I mentioned earlier, it’s yours as our thank-you gift when you make a contribution to help us keep Tony’s teaching on this station. Along with it, we’ll also send you Dr. Evans’ 30-day devotional, *Trusting God in Turbulent Times*, designed to encourage you with Scripture and strengthen your confidence in God through every season of life.

But this offer will only be available for a limited time, so don’t wait. Visit tonyevans.org today or reach out to our resource center at 1-800-800-3222, where team members are always on hand to help you. That’s online at tonyevans.org, or by phone at 1-800-800-3222.

The old saying goes, "He who fails to plan, plans to fail." But on Monday, Dr. Evans will explain that without the right kind of planning, we’re just as likely to run into disappointment or worse. Be sure to join us for that.

The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans is brought to you by The Urban Alternative and is made possible by the generous contributions of listeners like you.