Humble before God

James 4:6-10

Intro: This past weekend we celebrated one the best holidays that was the 4th of July. This wasn’t any normal 4th of July this was Americas big 250th celebration. And as true American patriots we did what we do best and that is blowing stuff up or lighting fireworks. How many of you like fireworks how many of you don’t. The only thing that bothers me about fireworks is when people on the 4th just post pictures of the fireworks they see like yes I get it but also the picture isn’t even good. Any way fireworks.

Fireworks make a loud boom and show up in the sky in many different colors. Now when fireworks are launched it draws people attention. Because you have a big boom and a flash of light happens. We can sometimes be this way. There are times we want people to draw attention to us or notice what we are doing or notice how great of a student I am or show them how great of an athlete I am. Tonight we are going to be in James 4 and we are going to be looking at pride.

We talked about pride last week with Jonah and how he was selfish and only cared about himself and how God could bless him. Tonight we are going to look at how we are to humble ourselves before God. We are going to look at how we are to submit to God and put away ourselves.

1. Be humble and submit (vs. 6-7)

Read: vs. 6-7

Before these verses James has just talked about all this strife that was happening with in this church he is writing to. Pride was causing all of this strife.

Be humble (vs. 6)

We get to verse six and we see James gives an answer how we can access grace from God. We see God gives grace to those who are humble. We all want grace from God and we should be thankful that God gives us grace because we do not deserve grace.

Seeing God’s grace reminds me when I was a counselor for camp I would give so much grace to the guys in my cabin. There were many times I probably should have taken a kid to the office to get disciplined but I didn’t because I decided to show grace I decided to give that kid a second chance or maybe a 10th chance.

Now God gives grace to us but only gives grace to those who are humble.

Ask: What does it mean to be humble? That our focus should not be on ourselves and be submitting to God.

A lot people look at the characteristic of being humble and many people think it means that we should think that we are nothing. No it means that we are to stop thinking about ourselves. This is the first step we must take. Then James gives us the answer of what we are to be focusing on.

Submit to God (vs.7)

The beginning of verse 7 says “Therefore submit to God”. Now the word submit here is not the same kind of submit when you are wrestling your sibling and they tap out. Some people take this word and make it seem like when we submit to God He is forcing us into places and situations until finally we can’t help it and we submit.

The word “submit” was used in military contexts. Soldiers when they are serving in the military they are expected to submit to their superior officers. But the word here in this verse does not mean surrender of one’s personhood or identity. For us as believers submission is the surrender of one’s will. This kind of surrender shows in obedience to authority.

Did any of you when you were little sing the song called I am in the Lord’s army? When you were singing that it is a true fact. When you got saved you joined the Lord’s army. As a solider you must choose to submit yourself to the One who is superior and that is God. It is submitting yourself to God’s will.

Resist the Devil (vs. 7)

In the second half of verse 7 it says we are to resist the Devil. The word resist literally means “take your stand against”. James already knew what sins these people were doing. And he knew that Satan is the real enemy who is seeking out to destroy us. We all know this, we see many times in Scripture that we are to resist the devil that we are to be on alert that we are not to give place to the devil.

Our pride can cause us to give into the devils lies. If we allow our pride get in the way and if we are not fully submitting to God the devil uses that to steer us in the wrong direction.

But if we resist the devil he will flee from you. It is making the decision everyday to resist the devil resist living for self and it is submitting to the Lord it is choosing His will and not your own. It is waking up in the morning and saying Lord use me today however you will.

2. Restored communion (vs. 8-9)

God longs for us to come back to Him. He doesn’t force Himself upon us. As we will see it is our responsibility to draw close to God.

Read: vs. 8-9

Draw close to God (vs. 8)

If you look at the book of James we see the people that James is writing to need to draw back to God. They were unfaithful to God. We are the same way there are many times in our lives we are unfaithful to God. We sin we let different things of the world get in the way of following God even pride gets in the way. We already mentioned this in the last point. We see in our study on Jonah how his pride got in the way of being faithful to God and following what God wanted him to do.

The Holy Spirit works in a believers heart and urges them to come back. One of the main ways we can draw near to God is by responding to God’s grace. When we submit to God we are to develop a closeness and build a relationship with Him. When we draw near to God He will draw near to us.

Separate from the World (vs. 8-9)

James calls to cleanse their hands. This church he was writing to were believers and we see here that he calls them sinners. These believers had unconfessed sin and were living in a way that was separate from God. After we cleanse our hands or confess our sins to God we are to purify our hearts. Living in a way that is pointed towards Christ that is only living for Christ. A life that is only serving Christ and not serving the world or serving self. There are those that are double-minded as the passage says. Meaning those who try to serve God but also live for themselves or for the world. We are to serve God and only Him we cannot serve both.

Then you get to verse 9. James concludes his call for confession for sin by exhorting his audience to let their laughter be turned to mourning and their joy to gloom. James here was not suggesting that believers face the future without happiness. James was not describing truly spiritual Christians but rather those who needed to confess sin and express sorrow and regret for their behavior.

The pleasures of the world are temporary. James warned the believers to turn from hollow laughter and superficial happiness provided by the world. James was saying to them take your sin serious. Confess it express proper grief over it. Through repentance and sorrow over sin God can restore our true lasting joy of salvation.

3. God’s Grace (vs. 10)

Read: vs. 10

Ask: Define humility?

Some view humility as a complete absence of self-confidence or the necessity to apologize for any talent or ability. But humility does not include putting yourself down or seeing yourself in little value. Humility is simply having a truthful understanding of yourself.

When we restore our relationship with God our self-centeredness should turn into a God-centered life. James wanted his readers to see themselves from God’s point of view with a desire to please Him first.

Once we express humility we experience exaltation. Now this does not mean we just get a big head again that yes everyone sees that I am humble before the Lord now exalt me. Or think that since you are humble that you are to be exalted no matter what.

When we humble ourselves God will exalt us but what our reaction should be is to give God praise and glory.

We have a job to do and that is to respond to this passage. We see James was writing tis to a church that had wars and fightings going on and that they were putting their own needs before others. What James has stated in this passage if the church followed this all of their fightings would be resolved.

I want to think back to Jonah. He was selfish he was prideful. His pride got in the way what God wanted from him. Jonah is an example of someone who struggles to humble themselves before the Lord. Jonah wanted what he thought was good for him he wanted what he thought would be right.

Now think with me James is writing this to a church. This is something as a church we need to follow. We need to examine ourselves and see if we are living in a way that is humbled before the Lord. Are we drawing near to God are we resisting the devil. We must live a life that is humbled and submitting to the Lord.

Reflection Questions

In what ways do you think pride affects your interactions with friends and peers?

In what ways could you submit to God in your daily life?

What changes do you need to make in your life to draw closer to God this week?

Find time this week to study James 4 and tell someone what you learned from the passage.