Today on Bold Steps with Mark Jobe will be stepping up to a higher altitude.
Temptation always tells you that if you buy into this, it'll satisfy you even though it's not God's way. And so we're lured into it. We're deceived into thinking that there's a way that's better than God's way. And it always ends up failing.
Welcome to Bold Steps with Mark Jobe, senior pastor of New Life Community Church and president of Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. I'm Wayne Shepherd. We've all heard the phrase God is a jealous God. But what does that mean? Well, that's the topic we're going to explore today in our message called Stepping Up to a Higher Attitude. It's part of our study from the Book of James. And we'll
be diving into chapter four. First, let me remind you that if you haven't signed up for Marc's email devotional, be sure to do that soon. It's the bold Step, or weekly automatically delivered to your inbox each Monday morning, free. To learn more or to sign up, visit Bold Steps. Org. Right now, let's get into today's message. Here's Marc job with bold steps.
Why is your heart more into your sport than it is into your God? Oh, I talk to men sometimes. I'll have a conversation with men. Sometimes I'll say, you know, I like church, I just don't I don't like that worship part. How about screaming and shouting when someone gets baptized and gives their life to Jesus Christ? How about getting a little excited about the things of the Kingdom of God that matter for eternity? How about letting your emotions go a little bit when you see because it's
what you're into that you're excited about? Wherever your heart is, your emotions going to be your heart is going to be man. I know that people, when they're into God, they are into God. And when they're into something else, they're into something else. So the question is, what are you into? Seriously, what are you into? Are you seriously into God? The one who saved you, washed you, cleansed you, bled for you, filled you, gave you life, gave you breath,
gave you a second chance. Man, if he deserves our full emotion and devotion, it's God of the universe. The Bible says that the Spirit of God envies intensely. So friendship with the world means that we embrace the values and the pursuits of the world around us. The Holy Spirit that God has placed inside of us longs jealousy for our Full devotion. So how do we step up to a different attitude? You find yourself that your attitude is not where it needs to be. Because let me
tell you something. The world is always going to disappoint you. I want you to hear me well. The world is always going to disappoint. There's nothing in this world that will fill you forever. It will fill you temporarily. But there will come a day that you will look at what the world has to offer. And you will say, is this it? God, his love, his mercy, his forgiveness, his power is the only thing that can ever satisfy and fill the longing of your spirit. You are created
to drink deeply of the fountain of God. Oh, you're climbing the success ladder and paying the bills. Oh, it may give you a thrill for a while. It may fill you for a while, but it won't be. It won't last long. The love of a woman and her commitment. It may fill you for a while, but there will come a day will that will ring empty in your life. These are not bad things, even good things in life. Sometimes we can try to cause them to take the place of God, cause them to try to fill us,
but ultimately they end up empty. And then we find when we find ourselves empty, the attitude in our life begins to change. And so James talks to the people. And he says to them how to change their attitude. And he says, listen, verse six, But God, but he, God gives more grace. Say more with me. More. I don't know what you want in life, but you cannot live without Grace. You say what? What is grace? Grace is the unmerited, undeserved favor of God. Grace is God's favor.
When you have God's favor, you have the most powerful force in the universe on your side. When you have God's favor, you have God's goodness pouring into your life. When you have God's favor, doors open up. When you have God's favor, there's a sense of his blessing, his goodness, his joy that's flowing on your life. When you have God's favor, you have momentum in your direction when you have God's favor. And here's what here's what James tells us.
But he gives more grace. Oh, grace is given to everybody. But some people have more grace than other people. You say, well, why does that person have so much favor? I wish I had their favor. They have more favor, more grace. And let me tell you, you want to attract the favor of God. You know, there are certain things that repel, and there's other things that attract. Some people go and spend a lot of money on perfumes. They think this
is this. They see the commercial where a guy sprays a little Cologne on them, and he's got a bunch of beautiful women around. They're like, where's that? Spray? A little bit you go like this, and no one but your dog comes and you're like, oh, well, what's going on here? I have a tendency, you know, some people attract mosquitoes and some people can just go out and never be bitten. I'm like a magnet. They like me. I tell my wife my blood sweet, and they like it.
And so, you know, in Spain, they have no screens on the houses. They just, you know, leave the doors open, the windows open. And so always there's some bugs that get in there. Some mosquitoes. So a couple of weeks ago it happened a bunch of nights. Go to bed. Turn the light off at two in the morning. Three in the morning. There's nothing worse than hearing. How many of you know that terrible feeling? There's a mosquito in the room. And if I don't get him, I'm going
to be dinner for them. I'll wake up with a bunch of little bites because they're going to suck the blood out of me. I'd flip on the light. My wife would say, what's going on? Don't. Don't worry, hon. I'm getting them. But they say that there's certain mosquito repellents as DTS in it, and you put it on you and it it repels the mosquito comes close to you. And whatever you have on you that that that DTS, It repels the mosquitoes. So the mosquitoes are like, no,
I don't like that. There is a repellent to the grace of God. There is something that when God gets around you, he withdraws his favor from you because he says, no, no, no, I don't even want to be around that. You know what repels the grace of God? You know what causes the grace of God to pull away from you more than anything else? What causes the grace of God to just get away from you? The grace of God doesn't want to land on it. Be near it. Come close
to you. He smells it on you and he backtracks from you. The Bible is very clear about this. Listen, it says God opposes the proud. Come on. God opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. Humility attracts the favor of God. Pride repels the favor of God. Now, some people have a wrong idea of what pride and humility look like. Some people think that if you're humble, you walk around with your head low all the time. When someone says, hi, how are you doing? You can
barely look up and say, hi. I'm, you know, staring down at your shoes. No, no, that's insecurity, not humbleness. There's a difference between being humble and being insecure. Jesus was humble, but he was. He was bold. He looked people in the eye. He spoke directly. He loved Moses. It says he was the most humble man of his day. Yet Moses led a couple million people into liberty. He stood up to the powerful forces of a nation in the name of God. Yet he was not a proud man.
He was a humble man. Humility is the right assessment of who you are before God. Humility is recognizing reality that you are small and God is great and that you deeply, deeply need God. That's humility. Humility causes you not to judge someone else because, you know, if it were not for the grace of God, I would be in your same situation. Humility causes you to pray because you know how much you need the wisdom of God.
Humility causes you not to brag about yourself, because you know that everything that you have has been given to you from on high. Humility causes you not to not to judge others quickly, because you know that you have been forgiven for so much and you need to forgive others for a lot as well. Humility causes you not to be intimidated by other people because you know they're mere human beings. The only one that you fear is
God himself. Humility causes you to bow your knee before God and say, God, there's nothing or no one in this world that can fill me but you. And I need all that you have. God, I am dependent on you. That's what humility does.
You're listening to Bold Steps with Mark Jobe and a message he's titled Stepping Up to a Higher Attitude. Stepping into a higher attitude takes humility and patience, as Mark explained. And if you'd like to partner with us to help others around the country, we'd love to partner with you. Here's a listener. Holly took the time to send us this quick note via Facebook. She says my everyday noon
hour is spent listening right here. Thank you for the broadcast. Well, your partnership allows us to keep reaching out and connecting with listeners like Holly. Sign up to become a Bold Partner online at Bold Steps. Org or call us at 800 3566639. Right now, let's discover more about what humility really means with our Bible teacher, Mark Jobe.
And Scripture says God opposes the proud. When God gets around proud people, people that brag, people that think that they have it all together, people that think they're wise, people that don't think they need God. People that pursue their own. People that look down on others. People that that are confident in themselves but not confident in God. It repels the grace of God. God says, if you're all that you are that you think you are, then do it on your own. Because I don't even want
to be around you. My favor is not going to be around you. And so God withdraws his favor from the proud, but he gives more grace to the humble. Amen. And so it says, submit yourselves, then, to God. come under the authority of God. Humility says not my way, but yours. God. Not my desires, but yours. God. Not my life, but yours. God. It's not about me, Lord. It's about you. It's not about what I want. It's about what you want. It's not about my will. It's
about your will. It's not about my dreams. It's about your dreams. It's not about my values. It's about your values. I submit myself to you, God, because you are greater than me. Submit yourself into God. And then he gives us three things to do to recapture. Regain that attitude that he's called us to. You see, it's humility does not earn the grace or favor of God. It merely puts us in a position to receive the gift of grace. Once in a while I'll go out with my young son.
He likes to throw the football around and I'm throwing a nice spiral football at him. If I've told him to go left and he goes right, not. I want him to receive the football, but he'll miss it because he's not in the right position to receive it. God's favor is that way. He wants to give us his favor. He throws his favor at us. But if we're in a position of pride, we cannot receive his grace or his favor. We miss it. So submitting to God means
to align ourselves under his authority. And there's three things that need to happen three practical steps to regain a new attitude. They're very simple. Let me give them to you very quickly. Number one he says, resist the devil and he will flee from you. Resist the temptation to fill your life outside of God. You see, the big lie of the devil is that there's a better way outside of God's way. That's the lie of temptation. Temptation always tells you there's a better way that's going to
fill you outside of God's way. You don't have to get married. Just live with her. It's easier. There's a better way outside of God's way. You don't have to tell the truth. Just lie. You can get away with it. There's a better way outside of God's way. You don't have to be generous. Just hold it all to yourself. You know, there. You know there's always going to be needs out there. There's a better way outside of God's way. Temptation always tells you that if you buy into this,
it'll satisfy you even though it's not God's way. And so we're lured into it. And we were deceived into thinking that there's a way that's better than God's way, and it always ends up failing. So the Bible says, resist the temptation and resist the devil. How many of you know? Sometimes you just have to resist. Temptation is always going to be there, always going to be there. There's not a person in this auditorium that this week was not tempted. We're not all tempted with the same things.
Your temptation may do nothing to me, but your. But my temptation may do nothing to you. Someone may be out there and say, man, I'm really fighting. I've been sober for six months and alcohol's a real temptation. I'm fighting it every day. I'm fighting it. I was never an alcoholic. Never, never struggled with alcoholism. So it's not a temptation for me. Doesn't draw me. Doesn't pull me. but for the person that's struggling with it, it's a major,
major battle. There's someone else that may be out there that's struggling with their their thoughts of anxiety, and it's a real battle to to not fall into depression or anxiety. And someone else may be out there. They've always had a real positive mentality. They've never struggled with depression, so their temptation doesn't affect the other person. But we all have our temptations, every single one of us. And the
root of every temptation is the same. The enemy is going to lie to you and try to get you to fall into the trap. That is not God's way. And so we resist it. We fight it. We say no. So first of all, you resist. You resist the temptation to fill your life outside of God. Secondly, oh, I love this verse. If you haven't heard anything today and you hear this, come near to God and he will come near to you. Oh, let me say that again. Come near to God, and he will come near to you.
You know what God is saying? God is saying if you take a step, he's going to take a step. God is saying, hey, take a step and he'll take a step. All God wants to know is that you're willing to take a step. You're willing to come close, and then God comes close. Some of us sit back and we just want God to come, but we're not willing to take the first step. God is just waiting. Just just saying. Come on. Take a step. If you take a step, I'll know. I know you really want me.
You take a step, I'm going to take a step. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. And what happens when you draw near to God and when God is close to you? You're going to start to feel the fullness of God, the grace of God. When you draw close, when you're far from God, you're going to feel the emptiness of being far from God. But when you and you want to fill your life with other things, but when you draw near to God, you're going to start feeling the fullness of God upon
your life. And then he ends with this listen. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners. Purify your hearts, you double minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. When you come near to God, you're going to realize that you have been chasing after a lot of things that that that grieve the heart of God. You're going to say, oh wow, God, I was chasing this and trying to fill myself with that. Things are nothing.
Forgive me God, that I was trying to fill my life outside of you. I want you to fill me, Lord. And then he ends with this. With this promise. Humble yourself before the Lord and he will lift you up. You see, the more you humble yourself, the more you attract the grace of God, the more you attract the grace of God. The higher the higher, the higher, the higher you go, the lower you humble yourself and say, God,
I need you. Then the more the favor of God comes upon you and lifts you up, the more you acknowledge your brokenness before God and say, God, I can't do anything without you. Then the more God can fill you and when God fills you, he starts lifting you up and your attitude starts going higher and your faith starts going higher, and your your impact starts going higher, and your, your, your life starts living at a different level. Why?
Because you've humbled yourself before God, and you've attracted the favor of God upon your life so he can start lifting you up. You're not lifting yourself up. It's God that's lifting you up because you've humbled yourself before God Almighty.
Learning about the grace of God. You're listening to the Bible teaching of Mark Jobe, and this is Bold Steps. And Mark, I'm sure there's some people out there that thought this was a really tough message today because the spirit is working and they're wrestling with their attitude about things. Maybe they need a new perspective.
You know, so many of us get into seasons where we struggle with our attitude. I know I have.
Yeah, we all do. Yes.
You know, gotten into those seasons where you just can't seem to shake negative thinking, a bad attitude, and that affects your relationships around you. It affects the people that are closest to you and it affects your relationship with God.
And so I think I'd like to pause right now, Wayne, and ask our listeners if you have been struggling with a bad attitude and the Lord has convicted you while you've been listening to this message, I would like to pray with you and pray over you that this would be the end of the bad attitude that has plagued your heart. Would you pause with me? Father, I pray for that person right now. People around them have noticed
the attitude that they've carried that critical, negative attitude. And I pray in Jesus name that wherever has been the wellspring of the thoughts that have led to that negative attitude towards others and towards you and towards life, I pray in Jesus name that you would give them the power to release it. Right now. We lay it at your feet. God, we say, this is not the attitude that you have called us as believers to have. And
so we repent of it. We renounce it. And we pray, even now, God, that you would begin to put on a new attitude in our hearts. I pray that after this message for the remainder of this day and going into the next week, that the attitude will be significantly different because of your Holy Spirit. I ask this in Jesus name. Amen.
Thank you Mark. Well, if you'd like to share this message with a friend who might need to hear it, just head over to our website. Bold steps. Org. Today's message is called stepping up to a New Attitude. It's because of the generous partnership with listeners like you that we can offer these daily messages and our bold resources. We're so grateful for our bold partners who give a financial gift each month. So if you'd like to join
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