God's moving and He want you too.

Jmaes 4:4-11

Introduction Story

I love working with my hands. As long as I can remember I have enjoyed working with tools or just playing with them. I even asked for a hammer, nails, saw, and a bunch of wood for Christmas when I was 8 because all I wanted to do was build things. Til this day I still love building things and working with my hands. My parents were very smart and and made use of this high school. My uncle would give my different fun projects from time to time. One day my uncle rented a chainsaw and had a list of trees for my to cut down all around their back yard. not too long after that my uncle rented a massive wood chipper so you can feed trees into it and turned it into mulch.

One day my uncle rented a chainsaw and had a list of trees for my to cut down all around their back yard.

One of our most challenging projects were the floors in part of our house. we pulled up the carpet in our guest house and it was such a mess. there was so much carpet glue! so we made the most of it. We decided to grind the glue and the concrete down so we could stain the concrete and make it look really cool. Sowe rented this super powered concrete grinder. The grinder was so powerful it launched dust and filled the guest house up with so much dust you could not see a person accross the room. We opened all the windows and doors and got fans to shoot the dust out. even then there was so much dust we had to stop and let the dust settle after a while. Well 12 hours of grinding later we finally finished and it was time to return the grinder. The rental place asked how it went and we said it was AWESOME! THIS THING IS A BEAST, IT JUST THROWS SO MUCH DUST!! The guy looked so confused and he said “Did the dust catcher not work?” We said WHHHAAAAAAT? Then he told us about the feature on the grinder that allows you to hook a tvacuum to and it catches all the dust straight into the vacuum. we said YOU HAVE TO BE KIDDING ME!?!?!?!?

We worked so much harder and so much longer than we had to! We breathed in this nasty dust, it was all in our eyes and now all over the house. Were thought “there has to be a better way and it turned out that there was a better way! we just didn't pay any attention to it or ask about it!!!!

I want to give you some good and bad news. The bad news is that most of us go through our lives exactly how my uncle and I went on grinding that floor. We go on thinking, no way it is suppose it be this hard. No way knowing God is this hard?

The good news is, unlike my uncle and I, We can all look at God’s master instructions to our lives and find out how to live THE RIGHT WAY!!!

JAMES 4:4-10

Context

James painted a wild picture of Christians. He said they

New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update Chapter 4

Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose: “He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us”?

Fought

Argued

battled

Killed (really means they put each other down)

unhappy with what they had.

This description that James gave is wild for 2 main reasons

New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update Chapter 4

Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose: “He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us”?

Christians are people who should follow GOd. Christians are people who supposedly left theor old ways behind in order to live the way they were created to. But His description of Christians here is no better or more impressive that anyone else in the world wether they were athiest, buddhist, or whatever.

Jame’s description of the christian church 2000 years ago sounds far too much like christians today. In one moment we say we are Christians. THAT MEANS SOMETHING. But we still argue. we still fight. We still make very similar mistakes as people who dont say they know God.

The New International Version Chapter 4

do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us?

James shares God’s plan that God has pre programmed into each one of us who are Christians and he introduces us to it here in verse 4. He talk about 2 different things that christians had a really hard time with in his day.

1) God

2) The world

SIDE 1 (LEFT SIDE)

He talks about these 2 separate things that are constantly pulling on us. We were born in the world. Thats over here. This is where we were all born and this is where we all live before we give our lives to God. This life over here is different from a life with God because, over here, we make decisions for ourselves. over here we make decisions based on how people around us want us to look and act and talk. Over here we live for and with anything, but God. Thats called sin and thats why over here we die and spend eternity in Hell.

SIDE 2 (RIGHT SIDE)

Then God, because of His awesome love and plan for each of us, He gives us the chance to know Him, live with Him, and follow Him. This is a life that still messes up sometimes, but does things NOT for ourselves, NOT just based on what the people around us want us to be or say or think, but this life over here lives for God. This life is one that seeks do live each moment with God.

This is SUCH a challenge! All of us were born sinful and against God so that means we are in this life! We cross from death into real life with God that comes ONLY by a relationship with Jesus. We live over here, following Jesus. We live over here looking to our bibles for what God wants us to do. We live over here with friends that help us grow towards God and not sin. We live over here with confidence that this life with Jesus is not only just on this Earth. but for all of eternity with Him in heaven!

But all of you Christians here know that its not always that easy right. Its jsut this simple, but its not quite this easy. You have learned by now that once you say you want to know Jesus, even after you pray a prayer to give him your life to follow Him, you step into a life with Him, you know that the bad things we use to do and want DONT JSUT DISAPEAR. After a while, all that we can see has changed about us is that we prayed a prayer and we have nothing to show for it. We still live, and talk, and act the way we did before we knew Him. THIS IS WHAT JAMES IS TALKING ABOUT.

he adds to this in verse 5...

Verse 5

Do you think that scripture says, without reason, that he jealously longs for the spirit He has caused to dwell in us?

This is a difficult verse if you just look at it all by itself, but God doesn't give it to us all by itself.

James is trying to help us understand what the problem really is and HOW TO FIX THE PROBLEM because we have all been there.

We have all liked the idea of following God and then later finding ourselves yelling at someone about something silly.

We have all said we wanted to get to know God by reading our bibles more and then not touch our bibles for months.

We Have all called ourselves Christians and then called someone else a bad name later on that week.

The God we serve knows about all those mistakes and challenges AND HE WILL NOT LEAVE YOU THERE ALONE! In fact, if you have given your life to Jesus, He has already given you something in return.

This is where the silly and frustrating story I shared earlier comes into play. You see, There is more. There is a piece that we are leaving out. Jesus said that, when he left Earth, he gives us His holy spirit. That means that all of us who are christians, as soon as you begin a real relationship with Jesus, something happens inside of you. God’s Holy spirit literally comes inside of you and GIVES YOU POWER!

What kind of power?

()- Power to understand and remember God

The Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and make you remember all that I have told you.

()- Power to share God’s love

When they finished praying, the place where they were meeting was shaken. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to proclaim God’s message with boldness.

()- Power to connect with God more closely through prayer

And pray in the spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests

I grew up so annoyed when someone would teach about this because it took so long for me to understand. I remember hearing teachers say that we had all this power, but I never understood how to access it. If GOd is so close then WHERE IS HE?

Well James answers that fo us here.

Verse 5

Do you think that scripture says, without reason, that he jealously longs for the spirit He has caused to dwell in us?

The “Spirit that he has caused to dwell in us” is not talking about OUR spirit. He is talking about His Holy Spit that lives inside of every believer. God’s Holy spirit lives inside of every true Christians and becomes a part of that person and changes them. Little by little.

That is literally God living IN US!! So what does all this mean? It sounds super cool, but I want yo uto know WHAT TO DO WITH ALL THIS COOL STUFF THAT YOU KNWO ABOUT GOD.

This means that

any time we get that TINY LITTLE URGE to invite a friend to church

any time you feel like you should pray

any time you have ever felt the urge to read your Bible

any time you feel like you need to sing to God durring worship

THAT IS NOT YOU!!! That Is God’s Holy Spirit inside of you leading you little by little to return to GOd.

When we follow that urge of the Holy spirit, not only do you grow closer to GOd, but he becomes more and more a part of your life!!! THATS HOW IT WORKS!!! So if you feel Got place that urge on you and you resist it, it doesnt become more a part of you life, in fact, it becomes LESS A PART OF YOUR LIFE.

Resisting the devil.