Right Desire

Good morning Church. Open up your bibles to James Chapter 4 verses 1-6 and when you get there please join me in standing for the reading of the Holy Word of God… James Chapter four verse one through six.

James 4:1–6 ESV

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.”

This is the Holy Word of God amen? Please be seated.

Shortly before Jesus entered the last phase of his ministry, Jesus was approached by someone the bible just refers to as the Rich young ruler or rich young man. This man, came to Jesus with a question. Turn with me to Mark chapter 10 verse 17 through 22.

Mark 10:17–22 ESV

And as he (Jesus) was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’ ” And he said to him, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.” And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

The young man comes up to Jesus and asks him “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus does not present him with His statement in John 14:6 “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” instead Jesus presents to him the law of Moses. Something the rich young man clearly was aware of, as he had quote “kept them from my youth”. Instead of pointing the young man back to Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on the mount that would convict him that he in fact has not kept the law like he says, Jesus charges him to “…sell all you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven and come, follow me.…”. So the rich young man responded not with joy or obedience, but the text says he was instead “disheartened” and “sorrowful”. in Colossians 3:2 Paul says “Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.” This is what Jesus wanted from the young man. But this young man’s desires of material wealth kept him away from doing as Jesus asked of him.

In James chapter 4 today we see that this problem of the desires of earthly things, are just as applicable to us as it is to this young man. I desire wrongly when I decide to go against what God says in any given moment. For example; Gods word tells us in Philippians 2:14 “Do all things without grumbling or disputing,” that means I should do everything without doing those things. Like this rich young mans grumbling that he cannot inherit eternal life. Or if you have been around me for some time, like my wife has, you will notice I am a grumbler. When I get home and I am asked to take the trash out, what do you think is my usual reaction? My mom told me I should be a lawyer when I was growing up. Not because I am smart or well studied but because everything I did was argumentative. Even things I agree with I still have a tendency to dispute about. When you and do something as common as complain about a task and argue with one another in bad faith, we are giving way to our desires and we are outside of God’s will. Which means we are working within our will, and working within our own will, or “following our heart” is a very dangerous place to be, amen? We see how the rich young man followed is heart when he was told his desires were outside of Gods. The goal of this message to point these sinful desires out to you and I, in hopes we don’t follow the example of this rich young man.

We will talk first about how how our desires Spark or Suppress conflict, how Desire Hinders or Helps Growth, then finally how Desire can Grieve or Gladden God.

Wrong Desire Sparks Conflict - Right Desire Suppresses Conflict

Let’s begin by looking at conflict. James 4:1–2a says: “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.” James opens with a rhetorical question to force reflection on his readers. What causes fights among you? Think for a moment. What sparked that last heated “discussion” with your spouse? What fueled that tension with your co-worker? Or the blow-up with your child that still stings? James says it clear as day the reason for our conflicts: It is your passions that are at war within you.

Think for a moment at the last conflict you had. What were you thinking in the moment? Were your actions driven by your own desires or desires that come from the Spirit? If we are being honest with one another we are going to say it was our desires. This brings us to our first point.

Wrong Desire Sparks Conflict

So what do wrong desires look like? The Apostle Paul gives us a good list to start from in Galatians 5:19–21

Galatians 5:19–21 ESV

Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

This list that Paul names off, every single one of them will spark conflict, amen? Lets expand on just two. First, if you are sexually immoral; lets say premarital sex specifically. How will that cause conflict? You put expectations, often perverted worldly expectations, in your mind with how your spouse is supposed to preform in regards to intimacy. And because of those expectations, you are going to have your desires unfulfilled which will for sure lead to conflict in your marriage later. Second work of the flesh we will expand on is idolatry. We may think this will only hurt ourselves, so how does the cause conflict? When we put something in place of God, lets say money, we are going to cause conflict in our worship of money. How many truly greedy people do you know that while in pursuit of that money also care about people, God’s image bearers, at the same time?

We see from both James and Paul in Galatians that if you are working in the flesh, then conflict will be there and evident for those around you to see. Every single one of those “works of the flesh” is inevitable when working in the flesh; when we see conflict in our lives, it is a fruit of of the flesh. If you find that you are working in the flesh, it is time to repent and seek forgiveness for your sin and seek reconciliation with the fellow believer and with the Lord our God. If you are not doing this, and instead excusing yourself because of the other parties sin we read in 1 John 1:8 “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” Be careful not to dismiss your own sin when you find yourself in one of these conflicts.

That is how wrong desires spark conflict. Now lets see how

Right Desire Suppresses Conflict

Reading on in Galatians 5:22-25

Galatians 5:22–25 ESV

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.

We have relived the last conflict we helped spark, now lets look back to a time where we or someone we know suppressed conflict with the fruits of the Spirit. What fruit did you or they exhibit when suppressing the last conflict? Lets looks at a couple of the fruits of the Spirit and see how they could fight against the works of the flesh we talked about a moment ago.

Premarital Sex

First we montioned, premarital sex. What fruit comes to mind that would have helped you combat the work of the flesh? Self control comes to my mind first. God has written His law on our hearts and we know that this act is wrong, but we have decided to callous and sere our consciences from believing it. If we had any self control given by the Spirit we would not have committed the act in the first place let alone allow our conscience to be seared. If we have self control brought upon by reliance on the Holy Spirit we will react to the temptation of premarital sex like Joseph when tempted by Potiphars wife, not just a no, but literally running from the temptation without regard for what you are leaving behind.

Idolatry

Then second, we spoke about idolatry. Creation by itself leaves us without excuse to know that there is a God. The beauty and order that comes with creation does not allow for nothing to create it, but for some reason we neglect or reject the creator for something that was created; like money. What fruit comes to mind as the the most helpful when it comes to idolatry? Faithfulness. Faithfulness to God, to your spouse, and to His commands. The fruit of faithfulness will be apparent as you are walking with God. You will speak faithfully about and to others, not giving into gossip or slander or profane speech. You will act faithfully by serving selflessly ant not seeking selfish gain, only concerned about serving like our savior did.

If we are to ever stop producing the works that come out of the flesh, then we need to remember that the Spirit of God that is dwelling within the believer will give us the fruits necessary to fight against the works of the flesh. If we wish to suppress conflict in our lives, we must start be relying on the Holy Spirit and the fruits that come from Him. Then we can start to leaving behind our works of the flesh. So my fellow believers, what I want you to do starting now is rely on the Holy Spirit for the right tools in those moments where conflict is about to appear. For the unbelievers in the room now though, you do not have the Holy Spirit residing within you, so my application will be different. Accept the free gift of God that is the Holy Spirit by coming to God right now in prayer, start by repenting; meaning changing your attitude about your sin and agreeing with God that you are sinful. Believe in your heart that Jesus died on the cross and rose again on the third day, and live to confess Christ in your every day life from here on out. Only then, will you be able to benefit from the gifts that the Holy Spirit has for you.

Wrong Desire Hinders Growth - Right Desire Helps Growth

So we have seen how conflict can be sparked or suppressed depending on our desires. Now we are going to look at how desires impact growth. The las half of verse two through verse 4.

James 4:2–4 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. 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.

On roughly 20 occasions in the New Testament mentions the concept of ask and you will receive. A couple examples are The lesson at the fig tree in

Matthew 21:21–22 ESV

And Jesus answered them, “Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen. And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.”

And Earlier in James in chapter 1 verses 5-6.

James 1:5–6 ESV

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.

Both of these passages they tell us the one thing that must come along with the prayer when we are asking for something. What is it? Faith. Jesus says if you have faith, and James says it must be done in faith. Here is a caution for you before we continue. How many of us here have heard some man on stage saying that if you pray for wealth, health, and prosperity you will get it if you have enough faith? That teaching is not only missing the whole point but is intentionally misleading. Besides proper context, this passage in James is the perfect counter to that prosperity teaching. Its not the desires of our heart Jesus and James are referring to. Its the right desires that come though a changed heart after having faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord and savior and the settling of the Holy Spirit upon you. Now lets see how James breaks this down for us.

You Must Ask

First we see James tell us we actually have to ask. Last half of verse 2.

James 4:2 ESV

You do not have, because you do not ask.

How do we ask? Prayer!

When we as believers desire to humble ourselves before God in prayer, we are allowing God to work in us and therefore grow us in all facets of our spiritual life. If believers ask for something in faith God is graciously going to provide that thing. Lets take for example, I want to pray for better patience in my relationship with my children. A righteous prayer request. A Christian will know that the answer to this prayer may not look exactly the way we envisioned. Amen? The quip I hear frequently is “every time I pray for patience, I am given many more opportunities to be patient.” Its funny and a very true statement. When I ask for it in faith, God will grant it. To many of us though, it will not look exactly like we envisioned. For me, because I am maturing, some days it feels like very slowly, God will provide great opportunities to exercise those fruits of the Spirit. Don’t be discouraged tough, this should not stop us from praying for that thing, instead we should praise God for an opportunity to be presented with a challenge that God is trusting us to get through because we have the Holy Spirit and his fruits on our side. When we come to His presence, we should be prepared for Him to answer our requests as a generous and gracious king in whatever way he deems appropriate to answer them.

Now lets contrast to how wrong desire in prayer will hinder or maybe even halt our growth altogether. This can work two different ways. On one hand, you could have a non-existant prayer life, you dont desire to come before the King. On the other hand it can look like these prosperity preachers, pagans, or other mainstream religions and be based completely on idolatry. Even if the person claims a faith in Jesus Christ, the people I just listed can and very often do make a Jesus modeled in their own image. They will believe things contrary to scripture and tell you Jesus is actually this, forget the what His Word says. Sunny Hostin from the the talk show “The View” said and I quote “Jesus would be the grand martial at the pride parade.”, which goes against the teaching of scripture. Billy Carson a spiritualist, who on a side note, recently and accidentally helped bring the gospel to millions of people by popularizing a Christian Apologist, Carson has said this “Jesus was a student of the Egyptian Mysteries and traveled to Tibet to learn energetic healing and meditation”. Becides the fact that there is not historical evidence of this, this is plain idolatry. The Jesus that Hostin and Carson are taking is not the Jesus of the bible. So when they, or we for that matter, incorrectly attribute things outside of scripture on Jesus, we are mocking our Triune God who instead should be feared and revered. When we commit this idolatry our prayers will have incorrectly placed desires, and will not be answered because that Jesus they are praying to does not exist.

So first thing that will hinder our growth as a Christian is not asking or you are praying to a Jesus that doesn't actually exists. But being humble enough to realize you need to speak to the King, that will help Growth.

You Must Ask with Right Desires

Now lets move to verse 3, James 4:3 “You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.” Another way to put that is when you are asking, you wont get anything because you arent asking with the right desire. Say it out loud if you know it, who knows the answer to the catechism question: What is the chief end of man? Man’s chief end (or primary purpose) is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. If that is our primary purpose Christian, then our desires need to align with that. We see this theme throughout all of scripture. 1 Corinthians 10:31 “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” Isaiah 43:7 “everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.” Man is made to glorify God. Amen? We know this, we confess it, but yet, how much do we think about this when we make requests to Gods throne room?

Recently I got a bit carried away with spending for projects around the house and fixing our cars, so carried away that left us really tight and uncomfortable for multiple weeks. If there is one thing to know about me is I am at best an incompetent mechanic, and my “fixing” caused us to have to take it into a competent mechanic. That left us dipping into our emergency fund and everywhere else we could and we were zero’d out. So I came to the Lord in prayer, praying to get us through this trial. After a few days while working on this sermon I had no choice but to reflect on my desires while I prayed. Why was I praying for deliverance or assistance from this trial? And do you know what God revealed to me? It was not because I wanted to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. I was praying for my desires to be fulfilled. I wanted to be more comfortable.

I want to ask you this question believer, what you are asking God for right now, be it deliverance, answers, etcetera. Why are you asking God for that thing? Ask that question before you go to His throne room in prayer the next time. I am not saying don’t ask for that thing, but when you check your desires at the door, you will have a much clearer and more humble mind to listen for Gods response.

The Second thing that will hinder our growth as Christians is praying with wrong desires. But praying for God’s will in our lives will promote growth.

Desire Stems From Loyalty

Moving to James 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.”

The theme from this passage has been that of rebuke. The word here adulterous is one of the strongest rebukes you can make in the New Testament. Adultery in itself is gives negative connotation, but this word for the Jew that James is referring to they are not just going to see the act of cheating on your spouse, they will also see themes from Hosea where God is rebuking them throughout the whole book on their spiritual adultery. They will see Jeremiah 3:20 “Surely, as a treacherous wife leaves her husband, so have you been treacherous to me, O house of Israel, declares the Lord.’ ”. They will recall the law commands those caught in the act of adultery be stoned to death. And James isn’s rebuking his readers because they had one slip up, he is directly rebuking them as actively spiritually disloyal covenant breakers.

God does not take lightly to you and I playing both sides. In the book of Revelation, and in it we see Jesus having the Apostle John write to these dispersed churches in Asia minor. In one reference to a church in Laodicea the Apostle John writes in Revelation 3:15–16 “‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.” This language here that Jesus is using for these lukewarm believers isn't something I would like to hear. During my time in the army I met some pretty vulgar people, so I heard many different legitimate rebukes or just straight insults. There is one very legitimate and true rebuke made to me that was so specific and just for me that I remember it as if they were just told to me today. I am sure you have heard some things similar in your lives that still may carry with you. This legitimate rebuke from Jesus to Laodicea is to be taken with that mindset. Friendship with the world will not be tolerated.

Luke 16:13 “No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” We have the choice on what master to serve. Loyalty to the world will amongst other things, hinder our growth in Christlikeness. But if our loyalty is properly placed, it will promote our growth in Christ.

We first looked at how wrong or right desire relates to conflict. We just concluded here how wrong or right desire affects our growth as Christians. Now we are going to look at our final point on how our desires can either grieve or please God.

Wrong Desire Grieves God - Right Desire Gladdens God

Lets turn back to our passage James 4:5–6 “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.”

James appears to be quoting here in verse 5 but interestingly there is no exact quotation for it in in scripture. However, most people believe this is James summarizing what the whole of scripture tells us about God’s jealousy. And he does a good job at the summary. Some of the verses he could be referencing are Exodus 34:14, Deuteronomy 4:23–24, Joshua 24:19–20, Isaiah 42:8, Nahum 1:2, Zechariah 8:2, Ezekiel 16:38–42, 2 Corinthians 11:2. And that is only a short list. Regardless of what James is quoting precisely, the point he is making is the same, God is a jealous God and will not share His glory with another. Like a God honoring marriage, the husband and wife will never be okay with the other giving their affections to another. God does not want His appointed bride for Christ, the Church, to give their affections to another either. And just like we went over in our previous section, God does not tolerate shared affections. Which leads us to our final point, how our desires grieve or gladden God.

In light of James 4:5-6 Turn with me in your bibles to Exodus 20:4–6. This passage is the second commandment and ties in well everything James is talking about in this section. Read with me verses 4 through 6 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.”

A lot packed into this passage but here to finish off today we will focus on specifically Gods jealousy and the repercussions of it. We are going to see how our wrong desire grieves God, and how our right desire pleases God. Each of which have their own consequences.

Wrong Desire Grieves God

The last half of Verse 5 in Exodus 20 “visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me”. God, just like we went over previously will not tolerate someone who is lukewarm. Idolatry is disgusting and here God promised, not curses, but promised them that the sin of idolatry will affect not just the individual but the rest of their family for multiple generations. God does not punish the children and grandchildren for the sin of the father, because we read in Ezekiel 18:19–20 “Yet you say, ‘Why should not the son suffer for the iniquity of the father?’ When the son has done what is just and right, and has been careful to observe all my statutes, he shall surely live. The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.”

Instead God is promising that the results of that sin will be felt by the family for generations. Lets take adultery as an example; lets say your father commits infidelity and causes the family to break apart the family through divorce. Coming from a family that did divorce and having divorced myself, I can tell you the consequences of that are still felt by my children. In the questions they ask me, in the example they look to as my young children grow to hopefully one day be married themselves, or as a tainted witness for Christ, the consequences of my sin are going to be felt for many years and by many of my family.

If we do not desire to follow God, we grieve Him. 2 Peter 3:9 “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” To the unbeliever here, God is reaching out to you right now. He desires something better for you, a life of peace, joy, love and the rest of the fruits that come with the Spirit. But you must come to Him in repentance. But if you so choose to reject Him there are consequences to that. Not just for you, but you will be affecting your family for generations to come. But if you by the grace and mercy of God do decide to follow Him, there is not only hope, but promise and what a wonderful promise it is. We have seen how our wrong desire grieves God. But neither James nor the second commandment ends there.

Right Desire Gladdens God

The final point that I want all of us to leave with is the consequences of following God. In Exodus 20:6 “but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.” there is a parallel passage from this in Deuteronomy 7:9 it states thousands of generations. My first thought reading this was how long is a thousand generations? A generation is about 40 years so thats 40,000. Now we can see reading this that this is not a literal thousand generations, we know that because we don’t live that long. This was a way to tell the Israelites that His love will endure forever to those who love and follow Him. Psalm 136:1 “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.” Rejoice today my fellow Christian! Because your God has set you apart, and has promised you that you will be loved steadfastly forever. And regardless of the trial you are experiencing, you can rest assured that the love of God has never and will never leave you.

When God changes our desires to follow Him, which means giving Lordship of our lives to Jesus Christ, it is then and only then that we can please God. Ephesians 2:10 “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” Without Christ our works are better described in Isaiah 64:6 as a filthy rag. And the only way we can have these desires change is by the sending of the Holy Spirit by God. To the unbeliever in the room, I want you to seriously consider what has been said today. And if you are sensing the calling of God on your life, do not fight it any longer, please speak to myself, one of the elders, or someone you know here about this calling and the next steps that need to go along with it. Do not wait any longer, we never know when our time is up.

We have our applications for today laid out in James 4:6 “But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” So lets do exactly that.

Application 1: Unbeliever, humble yourself today.

Right now, you have too much pride to accept the change of desires that God is offering to you. If you continue down this path until the day of your death, God will oppose you when you meet Him on the day of judgment. Pride, speaking from experience, is a difficult barrier to break down in your personal life. But it can be done with the help of the Holy Spirit. Humble yourself today and if you do, I want you to follow application 2.

Application 2: Which is to the lukewarm Christian, check your desires.

You and I are still imperfect people, amen? And being imperfect means we will sin against God again. What I ask you to do is when you are about to sin or even after the fact, think about what your desires were in that moment. If you check your desires after leaving here today and notice that you believe you do not sin, or you go around committing multiple sins and have no desire to change, you may not actually be on the side of God. Check your desires, and if you see this, get on your knees and repent, and then follow application 3.

Application 3: Which is believer bask in the grace of God!

Christian you are going to sin again, but fear not because or God gives more grace! You will stumble, you will fall, but those moments bring you in humility to God in repentance. And as James states in this passage, God gives grace to the humble, more grace! God gives much more grace then you have given into sin. Bask in that grace and rejoice in His forgiveness.

Lets pray.