The Conflict withing Me

Good morning, CHURCH!

Welcome to FFM where we love God, and we love people.

Are you ready to be equipped today?

Let me see your Bibles.

Let’s pray.

Let’s go to the book of Galatians 5:19-21 NKJV for this week’s wisdom Vaccination.

This Week’s Wisdom Vaccination Galatians 5:19-21 NKJV

Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, 21 envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Isn’t it interesting that the same fleshly desires that can lead to fornication, adultery, hatred and outbursts of wrath are the same fleshly desires that can lead to murder.

The flesh must be checked at all times!

In this passage, Paul lists actions and behaviors associated with "the flesh," contrasting them with the fruit of the Spirit (in verses 22–23) to show the difference between a life led by the Spirit and one driven by human desires.

Understand that Paul was writing to people who were used to following the law as a means to maintaining a covenant relationship with God.

We live in a day where people follow their own laws as to what maintains a covenant relationship with God.

The term “works of the flesh” would have jumped out at them.

Their belief was that actions stemming from unchecked desires and impulses violated the law and distanced them from God.

We know that God through Jesus and by sending Holy Spirit has written His laws on our hearts.

So, our heart should be to follow the Spirit and not the works of the flesh.

Today I’m continuing a series titled:

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The Character of a Real Christian

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Today’s message title is:

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The Conflict Within Me

Today we’ll be diving into chapter 4 of the book of James.

James 4:1-6 NKJV

Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? 2 You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. 4 Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5 Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously”?

6 But He gives more grace. Therefore, He says:

“God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.”

James 4:1 NKJV

Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members?

This passage addresses the internal causes of conflict in mankind.

Conflict comes from our desires and passions within us.

And not just these desires and passions within us but the fact that they are unchecked.

If they experienced internal struggles with sinful desires way back in the second temple Jewish time-period, how much more are we experiencing them now in the 2000’s?

The wars that James is talking about is not only external but also an internal battle against impulses that lead to sin.

In that time-period, they referred to this as the yetzer hara.

The “yetzer hara” was an idea in Jewish thought that all humans had this evil inclination or a drive towards selfish or immoral behavior.

And it’s not just that this inclination is inside us but that if it is not checked and allowed to express itself in our actions, it would lead us to sin or harm.

Genesis 6:5 NKJV

Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

There is this tendency in humanity that without proper discipline or guidance, we lean towards doing wrong.

We must do the right things to keep this from happening.

It’s not that in every choice we will automatically lean towards the wrong thing.

Yetzer is simply an inclination.

They believed we possess the yetzer for evil which is hara and the yetzer for good which is hatov.

And this yetzer hara was not thought of as inherently towards evil as much as it was thought of towards selfish urges that lead to harmful actions if not monitored.

It’s kind of like fire or a fire.

When a fire is under control it has great benefits but when a fire is out of control it is dangerous and destructive to everything in its path.

Also, a fire if ignored can grow out of control but if checked early on can be snuffed out.

So is it with the passions and desires that are within us.

We can’t ignore them.

We must snuff them out.

We must control them.

James 4:2 NKJV

You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask.

Here James is speaking to the destructive power of unchecked desire and jealousy, which Second Temple Jews would recognize as spiritually corrupting forces.

Such desires were considered to draw people away from God and into sin, particularly against fellow members of the community.

It is amazing how something we want that we don’t have can lead us to act in ways that are really divisive and downright childish.

You ever seen a child in a playroom with other kids and a bunch of toys.

I can have Barbie, Ken and the giant playhouse, but if I look over and see that you have Spiderman, suddenly what I have doesn’t matter.

The only thing that matters is how can I get that Spiderman from you.

Now you murder and covet.

Murder here could be taken literally or as hyperbolic language to indicate the extreme consequences of unchecked jealousy and envy.

When your desires lead you to harm others it speaks to the depth of your moral and spiritual corruption.

I can go even deeper with the analogies.

You are trying to avoid something like spiritual growth or change that is necessary.

When you run from it and someone who knows you questions you about it, instead of owning up to the fact that you’re running from something, you must point at someone else to be the blame for you running.

In order to blame someone else you must murder them. Not physically but you’ll murder their reputation.

The Pastor or small group leader is speaking biblically about something that pushes your buttons.

Instead of leaning into it, you reach into your hurt locker and grab a mallet to smash them over the head.

Yeah, not literally but you raise up at them to protect what’s going on in you.

Instead of dealing with the internal, you externally murder someone with your mouth.

You fight and war as the scripture says.

Where do these desires come from?

Second Temple Jews believed that intense desires for personal gain or material things were idolatrous.

And as Idolatrous, they reflect a heart that has turned from God and towards self and the material world.

Whatever you have in this life only appears to be not enough, when you are confronted with what someone else has.

Matthew 6:33 NKJV

But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

That is what we do when we have a dependence on God.

Matthew 6: Not in the bible.

But if I work hard enough, I’ll obtain all the stuff that I see others with.

That is what we do when we have a dependence on self.

The end of verse 2 leads to verse 3.

Yet you do not have because you do not ask.

James 4:3 NKJV

You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.

This verse addresses the problem of selfish or misguided motives in prayer.

It suggests that God does not grant requests rooted in self-centered desires, especially when those desires are not aligned with His purposes or values.

- There must be purity of intentions in our prayer.

- We are being warned against selfish desires.

- You need to keep your prayers in line with God’s will.

- Avoid this world’s materialistic and worldly pleasure mentality.

- In prayer seek righteousness over self-satisfaction.

- Selfish prayers were seen as a form of idolatry. (Our desires should be for God not for self-first.)

Let’s close with this.

James 4:4-5 NKJV

Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5 Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously”?

As long as we are cheating on God with the world, we are always going to caught up in this what about me world or what’s in it for me world.

It’s crazy how we think it’s worse for a married man to cheat on his wife or a married woman to cheat on her husband, than it is for a Christian who is supposed to be married to God, to cheat on Him.

The bible is clear that God’s people should not be those that adopt the values of the world.

We should see their values as foreign to us.

The concept of holiness (being set apart) was central to Jewish thought.

Being surrounded by so much sin and followers of false gods meant that it was crucial to maintain a separation of what’s important to us versus what’s important to them.

We are called to an exclusive loyalty to God

The assimilation of the church and the world that has taken place in my lifetime is something that has so many people thinking that they are in position to spend eternity with the Father when they’re actually an adulterer to God.

If you’re watching online or here in the room, I have a very important question to ask you.

What is Holy Spirit saying to you right now?