Draw Near to God
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Last week: Two ways to live, or two pursuits in life.
- False wisdom / True wisdom.
FW (leads to) bitter jealously & selfish ambition --- life centers around you; your wants; your desires.
leads to disorder and every vile practice.
TW - life that embraces pure commitment to God. Means dying to self...
17 But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. 18 And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.
17 But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. 18 And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.
James 3
True place of intimacy to depend solely on God.
CS Lewis -
For it is a dreadful truth that the state of (as you say) “having to depend solely on God” is what we all dread most. And of course that just shows how very much, how almost exclusively, we have been depending on things. But trouble goes so far back in our lives and is now so deeply ingrained, we will not turn to Him as long as He leaves us anything else to turn to.
It is a dreadful truth that the state of having to depend upon God is what we all dread the most. That just shows how very much we have been depending on other things. We will not depend on him as long as he leaves us anything else.
I suppose all one can say is that it was bound to come. In the hour of death and the day of judgment, what else shall we have? Perhaps when those moments come, they will feel happiest who have been forced (however unwittingly) to being practising it here on earth. It is good of Him to force us; but dear me, how hard to feel that it is good at the time.
-> The struggle we all feel. We want intimacy with God. We want to lay ourselves at his feet to depend solely on him.
CS Lewis
The struggle we all feel. We want intimacy with God. We want to lay ourselves at his feet to depend solely on him.
But dear me… how hard it is.
James talks to this.
1 What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? 2 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. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.
1 What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? 2 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. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. 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.
James 4:1
Paraphrase: There is a great battle for who controls your soul. (True or False wisdom)
Who is in control of your soul?
Who is in control of your soul?
(love one another; pulls back the curtains of our heart.)
James is setting before his people a basic question—whether their aim in life is to submit to the will of God or to gratify their own desires for the pleasures of this world.
He warns that, if pleasure is the policy of life, nothing but strife and hatred and division can possibly follow. He says that the result of the overriding search for pleasure is polemoi (wars) and machai (battles). He means that the feverish search for pleasure results in long-drawn-out resentments, which are like wars, and sudden explosions of enmity, which are like battles.
James: word for pleasures (hedone) hedonism… pursuit of gratifying flesh.
3 For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.
Other references to power battles:
Greek Philosophy… what makes humans human is power of rational thought… passion should be subdued by Reason.
Freud… ID; base desires, deep down, instincts… power, appetites, sex.
EGO; constantly trying to live a normal life in the world.
SuperEGO. societal norms and morality;
example: Appetite (food).
Doctor: Fewer than 30% (change your diet, stop smoking, stop drinking)
Passions are a vice. They are not the fruit of righteousness.
lusts left unbridled:
lust of anger (managing anger) - catchwords of unbridled anger: violence, divorce, depression.
lust for sex (outside of biblical confines is destructive) - wounds people, abandoned (children/people), used, abortion( 1million this year). SERIOIUS battles.
lust for food: creates stress, creates sickness, leaves you joyless
lust for money: creates selfish people, abusive people, unethical people, find you obnoxious.
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. 5 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”?
5 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”?
James 4:
a
(Adulterous) It means that our relationship to God is not like the distant relationship of king and subject or master and slave, but like the intimate relationship of husband and wife.
Point: Jealous God.... jealous gods
It means that when we sin we break God’s heart, as the heart of one partner in a marriage may be broken by the desertion of the other.
Point: Jealous God.... exclusive devotion of a husband/wife relationship.
(flip: lusts are also jealous gods / money, power, sex, addictions)
not willing to share us with any other “gods”.
Greek Philosophy… what makes humans human is power of rational thought… passion should be subdued by Reason.
Freud… ID; base desires, deep down, instincts… power, appetites, sex.
EGO; constantly trying to live a normal life in the world.
SuperEGO. societal norms and morality;
example: Appetite (food).
Fewer than 30%
To be human we have to learn to discipline our passions. Hedone. Hedonism.
Passions are a vice. They are not the fruit of righteousness.
lusts left unbridled:
lust of anger (managing anger) - catchwords of unbridled anger: violence, divorce, depression.
lust for sex (outside of biblical confines is destructive) - wounds people, abandoned (children/people), used, abortion( 1million this year). SERIOIUS battles.
lust for food: creates stress, creates sickness, leaves you joyless
lust for money: creates selfish people, abusive people, unethical people, find you obnoxious.
Answer to this struggle in life? (grace must be received).
6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” 7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
(prov 3:34)
9 Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you. 11 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. 12 There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?
James 4:9-11
6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” 7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you. 11 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. 12 There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?
Finding intimacy with God:
make a decision to be intimate with God.
Submit… learn to surrender (to win the war). You must turn life over to God.
countercultural. Last thing we want to do. hardest thing to do. (CS Lewis)
So, How are things with yourself in charge?
Do want to drag all your pain and hurt and worries with you to your grave?
Do you have the joy, peace, and contentment God promises?
Resist. (courage)
Draw Near. (comfort)
signs of repentance: (show what’s behind the wall… confession)
9 Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you. 11 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. 12 There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?
Don’t judge: don’t try to pronounce someone else’s punishment. We can recognize their sin, though.
13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”—
13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— 14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. 15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”
James 4:13-14
We should trust that the future is in God’s hand’s. Do your part with excellence; trust God’s will. God decides outcomes, not me.
39 And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”
When we learn to submit as zJesus did and to pray as Jesus prayed, we can rest in our assurance that even in sickness and tragedy and pain:
28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
16 As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. 17 So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.
What life do you want to perpetuate? false or true? Chasing passions/pleasures or drawing ever nearer to God?
We are here to offer prayer and support if you need it.
Let’s stand and sing.