THE DIFFERENCE IS THE BUT…
What Faith Looks like
I cannot tell you how many times I have had this conversation. A person will tell me, I believe in god but that doesn’t mean I have to (insert evidence of faith here) read my bible, adopt every kid, and wear suit and tie.
To be clear you are right!! To follow Jesus you don’t HAVE to do a lot of things.
But IF you do follow Jesus, your life will show it. That doesn’t mean you need to go get a suite, sing in the choir, or become a street preacher.
But things will start to change…
Lets dig in→
JAMES CHAPTER 4
VERSE 1
What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?
YOU? = In the Greek the “you” in this verse means “your members” ie, Your church body
What causes fights?
Your passions {pleasures} are at war within you.
you want stuff or positions or just want your way
your wants are at odds with your reality
YOU ARE ACTING LIKE A TODDLER
You don’t get your way so you kick and scream and fight and use your words as weapons
VERSE 2 - 3
You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.
You want something and you don’t get it so you murder
Murder?
He could mean actual murder.
He could mean Anger and rage and malice
Remember he would have heard his brother Jesus say that “If you hate your brother you have already committed murder in your heart.” - (paraphrased - sermon on the mount)
Covet
be jealous; strive for; to be filled with envy; to court someone's favor; to strive for; to be jealous; to be filled with jealousy
you are filled with envy and rage and jealousy bc someone else has something you want.
a position
house, car, money, relationships
The result?
fighting
arguments
But why don’t we have what we want?
because you don’t ask for it
13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. 14 And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.
1 Jn 5:13–15.
The part of this to remember is the part that says “according to his will”
This is not some prosperity gospel that you can ask for the Lambo or the Bugatti and get it just because you want cool stuff
because you ask wrongly
like mentioned above, things like material wealth are not evil, but when we approach God with requests, we should not be asking to “spend it on our passions” or pad our bank account in order to feel more secure.
asking according to his will (as i understand it) is asking to advance the kingdom and bring glory to our King
VERSE 4
4 You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God
You adulterous people
you cheat on God when you give your heart to the things of this world
You want the bank account so bad you will fight for it?
You want to be friends with the world? If you want to obey your worldly desires there is a consequence to that.
φιλία (philia). n. fem. friendship, love. The close relationship that characterizes friends. The word philia is related to the verb φιλέω (phileō, “to love). It occurs in the nt only in Jas 4:4. James provides a blunt contrast: Friendship (philia) with the world amounts to hatred toward God.
The meaning of the concept here involves a deep level of commitment and association that has moved beyond the basic level of acquaintance or familiarity.
-Justin Langford, “Friendship,” in Lexham Theological Wordbook
you become an enemy of God
VERSE 5
5 Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”?
This verse confuses me. There is no such quote from scripture that I can find. Commentators and scholars seem stumped
It could be that James is not actually quoting scripture, so much as he is speaking on the general message of scripture.
Either way, there are many verses eluding to God being jealous
and when we have that deep level of commitment to the world like we SHOULD have with God, He is jealous as a husband would be seeing wife sharing that type of relationship with another man
VERSE 6
6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
Such a great verse….
He is a jealous God, That wants our heart
we are a cheating people who give our hearts and allegiances to other things
Our hobbies
Our Jobs
Our security
Our trust
We cheat through and make idols of
politics
addictions
reputations
religion
He Gives more grace for this - But to who?
To the humble.
which person is the humble person?
the one who admits his weakness and his cheating tendencies?
Or the one who thinks they are good, and not a cheater, and has it under control
VERSE 7
7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
You have two options
submit to God - and build his Kingdom
submit to the enemy - and build his kingdom
If you submit to God that means
you humble yourself and place yourself under HIS leadership
you die to yourself and make your life about God
you murder your old life, and be reborn as property and family with the KING
If you resist the devil…
he will run from you. in the moment.
he will try again
this is not a one and done type of thing
VERSE 8-10
8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
9 Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.
10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
How do we “draw near to God”
I believe that James is telling us how in these 3 verses
Repent
recognize what you did wrong
genuinely feel bad about it
place yourself BACK under HIS leadership and LORDSHIP
What is the result
He will exalt you
VERSE 11-12
11 Do not speak evil against one another, brothers.
The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge.
12 There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?
Don’t talk bad about each other.
When you do this you judge them.
When you judge someone, you take on a role that is not yours.
Who do you think you are to sit in judgment of someone else anyway
Jesus is King - Not you
VERSE 13-17
13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”—
14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.
15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”
16 As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.
17 So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.
Come now
sounds like “come on bro…
Who do we think we are?
IF we have in fact humbled ourselves and placed ourselves under the submission and LORDSHIP of King Jesus…
How do we then make plans without bringing them to the throne?
How do we plan our life, as if it doesn’t belong to the King.
We SHOULD be asking God to lead our steps.
when we don’t we treat God like he is our servant.
“I am gonna do this or that God, and I am gonna need you to come over and bless this situation so that I can get what I want, or feel okay about this or that.”
When we live that way it is arrogant. and suggests that we are on the throne of our life.
to brag about that is madness and evil
Further more. If you ask God to lead your steps, and you are told to do this or that, and you don’t do it????
You need to repent.
that is betrayal
that means you only want God to be God when things go as you see fit.
that means you want to be the God of your life.
Next Week We Look When To Talk To God →
YOUR MONDAY MARCHING ORDERS
ARE COMING.
IN CASE YOU MISSED A FEW
DON’T GET IT TWISTED
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Tomorrow is Monday and that means you're likely heading into one of your largest areas of influence.
The people you will see tomorrow…
ENTER THE ARENA
GRATTITUDE OVER GRUMBLING
One of the biggest ways I fail at work is the C word… Not Crack, Complaining.
Have you ever been around a constant complainer? Its hard.
For myself, I know that when I am around someone who is ALWAYS complaining, I become…
Until next time,
Our King Is Coming, Be Ready
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