Pride

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Have you ever been driving in the car and out of no where your car starts making some weird noises? Its never a good feeling is it?
Last year I was driving our car in the winter and I remember out of no where the car started to make a little bit of a weird noise,
And not just that but then dashboard lit up like a Christmas tree.
The turn signals stopped working
My lights stopped working
The cars power stearing was out
And very quickly I realized that somthing was very wrong right?
And so I had an option where I could keep driving right?
I could ignore the issues, pretend nothing is happening, and keep moving forward,
Or I could realize that something is very wrong here and if I did this the car would keep moving for a little bit right?
I mean I could still drive, but really it would have had the potential to cause more damage, and really even cause a crash.
But the other thing I could have done was take it to a mechanic and address the issue right?
And thats kind of scary to because then you have to find out the issue and put money and time into it right? but its the right option.
Because if there is a symptom of a problem you need to figure out whats wrong.
And really this is kind of where we are in the book of James, because we have been in this series called “Overflow” and we have been talking about how our faith should overflow into every area of our life.
We have looked at our it overflowing in our trials, the times in life when we get angry, we looked at it spilling out into our actions and last week we looked at our words.
And this week James (who is writing this letter) actually is recognizing that the church he is writing to’s dashboard lights are lit up and is making some noise.
Because there are fights breaking out between members of the church he is writing too.
And these fights are often between the upper class and the lower class in the church
And he recognizes the fights are a problem but he realizes that the fights happening are actually a symptom of other things.
And really in this church it is a symptom of their pride, jealousy and coveting where each group is wanting parts of what the other has.
And as we jump into the message this morning it is so important to point out that if we stepped back and looked at our lives, there are probably symptoms and signs that we might have that are pointing to the issue of pride, and jealousy in our lives.
I mean as small as we just always have the desire for more
It could be as much as we make comments that lower others and as a result make us higher
And its not just i am jelous of money or a car, but it could even be, being jelous that a person has a family that seems really put togther and they always have those instagram worthy photos and my family is always a mess
It could be other things
But the truth is we need to humble ourselves to hear this message today, because if you have an issue with pride chances are you do not think so.
If I asked who is the most prideful person in this room, chances are no one would think “oh its definitely me” but every person would say “oh its that person!”
And so my hope for us to look at our lives and see where pride, and jealousy can creep in and for us to stop striving for the things that actually matter very little and start striving for what does.
So we are in James 4:1-17 and we will just be starting in verses 1-3 and James really starts with the symptom. It says this:
James 4:1–3 NIV
1 What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? 2 You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. 3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.
So James starts with this question, of why are all these fights starting between all of you?!
And in the second half of verse one he actually saying how the fight that is happening in our life should not be with your neighbor, or another person, but the big fight in your life is actually what is happening within you!
You know if you have ever told a toddler to not touch something, you can almost watch the inward battle happening.
Finn is at that stage where you can almost see the fight happening on his face.
and most of the time he losses
But on a serious note there is a battle waging within us, and really it is the battle to do things our way and to reach for the things that we want to reach for or for us to do things God’s way and to strive for who He wants us to be.
And I want you to notice what James is saying here, because he saying to this church you are losing this war, and implies its because they are desiring the wrong things
And he tells us because of this there is a lot of destruction.
And the next few verses are a little harsh, but I think its important for us to hear because James is really addressing this truth and he says:
James 4:4–6 (NIV)
4 You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. 5 Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us? 6 But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says:
“God opposes the proud
but shows favor to the humble.” 
So this sounds harsh doesn’t it? because he says “you adulterous people, if you are a friend of the world you are an enemy of God.”
And so I need to point out that James is not saying every single thing in the world is bad.
He is not saying oh you went out to eat last night, thats really bad
He is not saying you have a nice car, you are an enemy of God.
If your car is worth under this amount your good if its even a dollar over, well I am sorry
But what he is doing is he is telling us is if you are a Christ follower, but things in this world come before the things of God it is a problem.
And not just that is is adultry because you are loving the world more than loving God
It would be like if I absolutely loved my car, and every day I would spend hours washing it detailing it,
I would work on it outside
And you would go Brendan, I have seen you outside with that car 24/7 when do you work or see your family.
And I go well I haven’t worked or seen my family in a couple weeks,
You would probably go WHAT?!
That car is destroying your life, and you think it is the thing making your life great!
But you know in a way this is what we do with a lot of material things in our life.
They are not bad things,
I mean money is a good thing- If you gave me 20 dollars I would be happy
A car is a good thing- (you can give me one if you want…)
Jobs are good
As a pastor mine could be growing the church (thats a good thing)
But even things like these that are good become bad when we say this is the thing I find my fulfillment in!
Because the truth is none of these things can give you fulfillment.
because they might give you happieness and fill you up for a little bit, but it wont last.
Its like if you drank salt water, you can think, well I am drinking water, but it will make you a lot thirstier and really sick
If we want somthing that can fill our lives it cannot be from the world, but it has to be God.
And thats why at the end of the verse it says God shows favor to the humble, because when we find our fufilment in God, it means us being able to say I have tried other things, I have tried myslef and they did not deliver, and I want my fulfillment to come from God.
And just for a second I want to jump down a few verses, because James tells us very practically why we need to find our fufillment and really our identity in God.
Look at verses 13-16, it says this:
James 4:13–17 (NIV)
Boasting About Tomorrow
13 Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” 14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15 Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil. 17 If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.
You know James points out that you can work towrds somthing, maybe its a year of your life, maybe its your entire life.
And you can work towards these things, but really the things in our life are temporary and the truth is we have very little control over most things in our life.
We can work towards something in our job and it only takes the economy taking a turn for the worse for us to have to start over somewhere else
We can work to buy our dream house, but it only takes a bad storm for it to be destroyed
And really even our lives are very fragile, James actually even mentions that in the grand scheme of things our life is a mist that appear and disappears.
I mean if I squart this bottle, look how fast it desapears- its quick
And James is saying so often what we do in our life is we work for this- we work for the mist that is guarenteed to disappear.
And James says why devote your life to this, when you can devote your life to the eternal?
And let me just close going back to verse 6
And just the first part of verse 6 because James is saying invest your life in the eternal and its kind of interesting because he is realizing the church he is writing to is not doing this
In fact like we talked about he calls the people in this church an adulterous people, he has said how some of them are living in a way where they are the enemies of God,
And you think the heart of this section would be you guys are terrible people, in fact you guys are a sad excuse for a Christians
but look what he says (and I want you to read this outloud) because in verse 6 he says:
“But He gives us more grace.”
We can turn our back intentionally on God and find fulfillment in everything but Him, but He gives us more grace.
And this morning this is really good news for us because the truth is our life is a mist, and we can devote our lives to everything but God, you might be here and you might devote a very small part of your life to God,
But the good news is that while we might be doing that He is giving more grace.
And as we get ready to close I want you to think about what your life is built on this morning.
Because I can think of times in my life where I built my life on things other things and to be honest it always left me disappointed, or it was something short lived,
And this morning I want to end by asking what does it look like for you to make this shift from where God is a small part of your life to where He is the very foundation of your life that every part of you is built on?
Because when we do that the trials in our life can come, things can go wrong, disappointments still happen,
And to be honest they still hurt, but they hurt a little less knowing they are just a mist and that they are not part of who we are because our identity is not in this world, but is as a child of God.
Will You Pray with me?
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