(James 013) The Root of Animosity (Part 1)
Notes
Transcript
Handout
What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?
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.
You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.
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.
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”?
But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.
Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
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.
There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?
Wrapping up chapter 3, James compared Godly wisdom with earthly wisdom.
Earthly wisdom was characterized by:
Selfishness.
Bitter jealousy.
Disorder.
James then flows his thoughts directly into our passage.
The question is...
Why do churches fight?
Why do people look in from the outside and want nothing to do with a church?
Or Christianity?
Because they are seeing a group of people following earthly wisdom.
Why has anyone ever been hurt in a church?
People are following earthly wisdom.
James seems like a dad who is done with the fighting.
1. The source of animosity. (vs. 1-3)
1. The source of animosity. (vs. 1-3)
What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?
1. The source of animosity. (vs. 1-3)
1. The source of animosity. (vs. 1-3)
James asks a clear question: what is causing the animosity?
This was not a new problem.
Paul addressed disagreements more than once in 1 Corinthians.
The Galatian believers were “biting and devouring” each other.
In Ephesians Paul had to encourage them to unity.
In the church at Philippi there were two women that couldn’t get along.
When they needed each other most, they were fighting.
They had conflicts between the rich and poor.
They had people envying teachers.
They were tearing each other down with their words.
They were full of bitter envy and disorder.
James is going to deal with it head on.
A. The origin of animosity.
A. The origin of animosity.
What is the source of animosity?
What causes churches to fight.
The answer James gives is not the one you and I would give.
We would blame other people.
We say… its just the way I am… i have a short temper.
We blame our heritage
We blame our past.
That isn’t what James does.
Where was the animosity James was seeing coming from?
Where does it come from in our churches today?
They come from our own selfish evil passions that war inside of us.
WE are the cause of animosity.
Our inner desire for self.
Selfishness.
This selfishness goes all the way back to Eve eating the fruit.
All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
A. The origin of animosity.
A. The origin of animosity.
If you are in the midst of a conflict, you are probably thinking that is a bit simplistic.
Thinking… you don’t know my situation.
We have to understand the constant war that is within us!
James is calling us to pay attention to it.
For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.
This is not the first time James has pointed to our own flesh as the problem.
Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.
But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.
A. The origin of animosity.
A. The origin of animosity.
If we are honest with ourselves, often our own bad attitude is because of the battle going on in us.
Our flesh want what it wants.
The Spirit is convicting us of sin.
This is the importance of walking in the Spirit.
That is the benefit of discipleship.
B. The anatomy of animosity.
B. The anatomy of animosity.
Having established the root of animosity, James moves on to talk about its miserable anatomy.
James 4:2 (ESV)
You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel...
You are constantly unsatisfied.
We believe what the world tells us.
The enemy shows us things that look good.
Then tells us that if we chase hard enough we will get it and it will be everything we ever wanted.
But it isn’t.
Now, all these years later, I’m certain that I got famous so I would not waste my entire life trying to get famous. You have to get famous to know that it’s not the answer. And nobody who is not famous will ever truly believe that. - Matthew Perry, Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing
B. The anatomy of animosity.
B. The anatomy of animosity.
James tells us of the emptiness of chasing pleasure in 4 times in this passage.
vs 2 - You lust and do not have.
vs 2 - You envy but cannot obtain.
vs 2 - You don’t have because you do not ask.
vs 3 - You ask and do not receive.
There is emptiness in what the world has to offer.
Discontent people cause more animosity.
They are mad because they don’t have.
They are mad because of wasted time trying to obtain.
They are mad because someone else has something.
Eventually it leads to murder.
This is a jarring statement.
Some think that James is using a metaphor.
There is no evidence of that. In fact...
It is a mirror image of David and Uriah.
It seems this must have happened at some point.
Animosity is made up of intense frustration.
I want something - lusting for it.
I cannot have what I want so...
I kill (frustration boiling over)
That didn’t satisfy so I continue to hotly desire something.
I still can’t get it
So I fight and argue with people.
The truth about it all is that Satan is trying to destroy us.
C. The prayerlessness of animosity.
C. The prayerlessness of animosity.
The bible is clearly repeats the theme that our pursuit of pleasure is destructive to our prayer life.
James 4:2–3 (ESV)
... You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.
C. The prayerlessness of animosity.
C. The prayerlessness of animosity.
James points out two problems in their prayer life.
i. Animosity causes us to quit praying.
i. Animosity causes us to quit praying.
Their prayer life has completely died.
They were not asking God for the things they needed.
Their own selfish desires were in control of their lives.
Their focus was on self not God.
It isn’t so much the animosity that kept them from praying, but the root of the animosity.... selfish desires.
Let’s think about this… Look at these two verses we know well...
Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us,
i. Animosity causes us to quit praying.
i. Animosity causes us to quit praying.
Why… having the ability to go to the creator of the universe.
The one who holds the beginning and the end of all things.
Who invites us to come.
And promises he will do more than we can ever dream of...
Why do we still struggle to pray?
After 6 weeks of intense prayer focus in our services this spring.
Why do I still struggle to have the prayer life I should?
Knowing what we know about the power of prayer and the importance of corporate prayer, why do churches struggle to get people to gather to pray together?
Why is it that even though we added a second time for corporate prayer, there is a tiny few that attend?
Our own selfish desires.
We might get offended by that.
Might say it is our schedule that keeps us away.
Or whatever reason you may have.
We call them priorities.
It is often our own desires disguised as priorities.
Prayer-less people are prayer-less because of their own selfish ambitions.
ii. Animosity causes us to ask for the wrong things.
ii. Animosity causes us to ask for the wrong things.
James is not saying that we don’t have because we don’t ask so ask for whatever you want.
Some would say that is what this verse is saying and if you don’t get it, you don’t have enough faith.
James clearly isn’t saying that.
We need to take note of what James IS saying.
When they did pray, they were so consumed with self that they were asking God for selfish things.
They were asking for the wrong things.
It is easy for us to think we wouldn’t do this, but we do.
Wrongly:
Ask badly.
Ask miserably.
Because we are asking for our own selfish desires.
This usually happens because we forget the purpose of prayer and ask for things that satisfy our desires.
We would say that we don’t believe in a prosperity gospel.
But we pray that way.
We say God isn’t going to give us health and wealth.
But we pray that way.
And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.
Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.
Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act.
ii. Animosity causes us to ask for the wrong things.
ii. Animosity causes us to ask for the wrong things.
When we are not delighting in God then we end trying to use God to get our own way.
We pray for peace in our home or a situation simply so we can have relief from a stressful situation.
We pray for healing for ourselves or someone simply because we don’t want to walk through the difficult circumstances.
Why pray for financial provision for our church?
Look at your prayer list.
Think about what you are giving prayer requests for.
Often we don’t even have a specific thing we are praying for.
A name and a condition.
Are we really thinking about what we are praying about and why?
Or do we just simply want God to fix it so we feel better?
Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us,
ii. Animosity causes us to ask for the wrong things.
ii. Animosity causes us to ask for the wrong things.
If God will do far above all we can ask or even begin to imagine, wouldn’t we want to see that used for eternal reward?
Not temporary things, but eternal things!
Have we considered that we might be praying the wrong way?
Pray biblically. Pray the Bible.
Pray biblically. Pray the Bible.
Pray biblically.
Pray according to God’s will.
Don’t pray away something God is doing in your life or someone else’s
Think about what you are praying for.
Does it even need to be prayed for?
Pray the Bible.
We tend to pray selfishly.
Praying the Bible takes our mind off self and points our hearts to God.
Praying the Bible helps us pray biblically.
Why are you asking for what your are?
How we pray matters.
They were not praying God’s will.
They were praying to fill their own desires.
Prayer is acknowledging our need for God and a desire to be conformed to His will.
When we are chasing our own desires we have no desire to acknowledge a need for God or conform to His will.
If we do decide to pray, it is out of our own selfish desires so we ask for the wrong reasons.
Questions for the week:
What does James say is the root of conflict in my life? With this in mind, how can I overcome conflict?
What do I spend my time trying to get/become?
How is my prayer life? Why?