Christian’s Living in the World
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Who here has a best friend?
Who here has ever fought with your best friend?
Guys, we have to realize that our friendships are messy because we are two sinner who are coming together.
Relationships are going to have fights.
They will have ups and downs.
So today we are going to be talking about two types of friendships…
One with the world
and one with Christ.
Friendship with the World.
Friendship with the World.
What is the source of wars and fights among you? Don’t they come from your passions that wage war within you?
You desire and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and wage war. You do not have because you do not ask.
You ask and don’t receive because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.
You adulterous people! Don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? So whoever wants to be the friend of the world becomes the enemy of God.
Or do you think it’s without reason that the Scripture says: The spirit he made to dwell in us envies intensely?
This first passage starts off in a strange way. It starts off by talking about war.
there are these wars within us
These fights within us that lead to murder.
But James is saying that this is coming from our own desire.
The source of these wars are from the passions that are within us.
Guys, it is not natural for us to pursue God, rather it is natural for us to pursue the world.
We want things.
We want to be rich.
We do not want to be in debt.
We want a nice car.
We want the 3 story house with a white picket fence, 2 dogs, a cat, and a horse on 100 acres.
Have you guys ever desired or wanted something pretty bad?
Guys it is not a bad things to want, so don’t be afraid to answer the question.
Mikaela and I really want a dog.
We already have a name picked out.
We have a breader we have been looking at.
But we cannot because our current apartment will not allow it.
So it is okay to want things, that is not what James is saying.
He is saying that we sometimes desire things so much that we leave God in the dust.
We have to know that it is God’s will be done.
It has to be God’s will first.
This is not what the world is saying though.
They are saying to follow your heart.
Go with the flow.
But that is not what the Bible says.
The heart is more deceitful than anything else, and incurable—who can understand it?
Our heart is going to lead us astray!
I trust myself the least when I want something the most.
We are good at justifying what we want.
We want something and we find ways to word things and convince ourselves that we need them.
Like I will do anything to convince myself that I need a bowl of ice cream.
We do the same thing with sin!
Ya know, its not technically illegal if you only go 4 over the speed limit.
It is okay to tell someone a half truth as long as I am not lying.
and we tell ourselves this, because we are trusting ourselves, our own desire and not God’s desire.
James says this is leading to murder and coveting.
They were not killing each other in the church, it is a hyperbole, but he is saying when you go after the world and not God, then you are going to cause conflict.
But we are called to God’s desire.
So then we go and we start asking God for things.
We go and ask and we are still thinking about ourselves.
God bless me with money.
God give me a smoking hot wife.
God give me a husband with washboard abs.
God let me have a good day so I can feel better about myself and not be sad.
but the text makes it clear that when we ask in our own desires, we do not receive because of our motive.
Motive matters most.
Guys I am filling you with one liners that will benefit you so much.
We have to know our motives.
Is it to benefit the kingdom?
Or is it for ourselves?
Sometimes we say that it is for God, but truthfully it can also be for us as well.
Then James calls us adulterous people.
Does anyone know why he uses this language?
In the Bible over and over again Christ is pictured as the Groom and we are the Bride.
This is because of the close personal relationship that we have with Christ.
They use this imagery and we are breaking it, so James calls us adulterous.
We are choosing something over him.
James is saying you cannot have a side chick.
You have become a Christian, you have devoted yourself to only Christ, so do not go back to the world.
If we pursue the things of this world, we have become enemies with God.
Ouch.
I never want to be enemies with God.
I want to pursue Godliness.
Because the scripture says that he “envies intensely.”
What that means is God wants you.
He is jealous for you.
Because the Lord is jealous for his reputation, you are never to bow down to another god. He is a jealous God.
God wants YOU!
He wants your heart.
And it grieves him, he gets jealous when he cannot have your heart.
Instead we have to have a…
Friendship With God.
Friendship With God.
But he gives greater grace. Therefore he says: God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.
Therefore, submit 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, sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
Be miserable 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.
Our God is a God of grace.
it says, “he gives greater grace.”
No matter how far you are.
No matter if you are chasing after the things of this world.
If you are after sex, drugs, money, murder.
God has greater grace.
He has grace no matter how deep into sin we are.
The law came along to multiply the trespass. But where sin multiplied, grace multiplied even more
What should we say then? Should we continue in sin so that grace may multiply?
Absolutely not! How can we who died to sin still live in it?
His word says that we should not continue in our sin though.
But there there is sin, Grace abounds all the more.
So this is what he is saying.
If you think you do not need God, you are prideful and God is going to resist that.
But you you humble yourself and see your need for God, then he will give grace.
We have to be humble, bow before God and see how we need him in everything.
When we are doing this, we will resist the devil.
Where is Satan right now?
Satan is not omnipresent, meaning he is not like God and can be everywhere at once, but he is here on this Earth.
Be sober-minded, be alert. Your adversary the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for anyone he can devour.
Satan is here, on this Earth.
He is not on this throne in hell sitting back, but is prowling around.
He wants to come after us.
Guys, Satan does not need us to worship him.
Satan wants us to worship, idolize, prioritize ANYTHING BUT GOD.
Literally anything.
So you can’t just say oh I will resist Satan, but the things of this world are okay.
He wants to separate you from God in any way that he can.
If he does, then thats a win for him.
To resist the devil is to resist the things of this world.
It is a two step process though.
Resist the devil
Draw near to God.
We have to seek out God.
Maybe you have said “I just don’t feel God”
When is the last time you have prayed?
Spent time in your Bible?
There is more to “feeling God” than that, but it plays a role in it.
Because when we do, God is there to cleanse us.
He wants to make us clean.
It says “cleanse your hands and purify your hearts”
What in the world?
So Jesus wants to to go and wash my hands?
That’s not what he is saying, he is given us direction.
James is saying to draw near to God you need to give him everything.
Not only your outside (your hands), but also your insides (your heart).
He will make those things clean, he just wants you to hand it over to him.
Then again it looks like James flips the page and starts talking about something else. This sermon could have been a 12 point sermon.
Be miserable and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.
James is wording things weirdly in this passage.
Why does he want us to be miserable?
Thats dumb, I do not want that.
What he is saying is…
Our sin should hurt us.
James is saying this is regard to sin.
The world when they sin they laugh, they think its a good fun time.
They take it lightly.
James is saying heck no, not for the person who is saying they are friends of God. Who are following him.
They should be miserable.
They should mourn.
They should cry.
When we sin, it should hurt.
When you look at something you shouldn’t.
When you lie.
When you cheat.
When you say the words that you should not.
These things should effect us.
We must hate our own sin.
When we sin we let him in.
Our sin opens the door for Satan and he cannot have a seat at our table.
So instead we have to trust God completely.
We have to humble ourselves.
When we are humble, we know just how much we need Jesus.
If it was not for him:
We would be on a track to hell.
We would not have hope
In this life or the one to come.
We would be anxious, more than we are.
We would be lost.
Participating in the things of life that do not bring us joy.
So we need him. We need that bloodshed. Because we need God to be our friend.
Finally…
Friendship Not Judge.
Friendship Not Judge.
Don’t criticize one another, brothers and sisters. Anyone who defames or judges a fellow believer defames and judges the law. If you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge.
There is one lawgiver and judge who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?
Guys, we are called to be friends to God, not try to be God.
We are not the one who is in control.
But this reads at the surface level to never call anyone out.
Like Johnny is over here claiming Jesus and doing drugs openly and thinks he is in no sin, but no one will call him out because of James 4,
No, this is saying that you are of no higher value than anyone else.
We are all going to be judged by God.
When we try to play the role of judge, things do not go well.
So we do not need to be judging our neighbors and trying to be like God.
There is a sense where we have to call out our brothers and sisters in Christ.
But it has to be in a loving way.
A way that is us being humble and not high on our throne.
Why do you look at the splinter in your brother’s eye but don’t notice the beam of wood in your own eye?
Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the splinter out of your eye,’ and look, there’s a beam of wood in your own eye?
Hypocrite! First take the beam of wood out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to take the splinter out of your brother’s eye.
We have to see eye to eye.
We have to examine ourselves first and see if we have any part that we can own up to.
Because untimely our goal is to love like Jesus.
God is the judge, the one who can save and destroy. It is not us.
In conclusion, we have to resist the ways of this world, and find God.
He is our rock and our joy.
So ask yourself tonight what part of the world am I still holding onto?
And give it over to Jesus.
Pray with me.
