James 4:1-10 - Knowing Jesus - The Heart

Jan 24 - James 4:1-10 - Knowing Jesus - The Heart

HBI – The passions of our heart need to not be on our own pride and the world but rather on Humbly submitting to God and living our lives for Him. 

Intro

People sometimes fight over silly things; it is odd what causes people to fight and war. For example, there was The War of the Whiskers took place in France between England and France in 1152

Bearded King Louis VII married Eleanor, the daughter of a French duke, by which he received a dowry of two provinces. After his return from the crusades, King Louis shaved his beard, which prompted Eleanor to declare that he was ugly without his beard. Eleanor demanded that he grow it back, which he refused. Eleanor divorced him and married King Henry II of England. She demanded return of her dowry. When King Louis refused, King Henry declared war to recover the two provinces. The war lasted 301 years

The War of the Oaken Bucket occurred in Italy in 1325 between the state of Bologna and the state of Modena. Soldiers from Modena invaded Bologna and stole a brown oak bucket. Hundreds of Bologna citizens were killed. Bologna went to war to recover the bucket and their honor. After a bloody 12-year war in which thousands died, Modena won the battle of Zappolino and kept the bucket, which can be seen in the bell tower of a 14th century building in Modena.

There is also many silly things in the church that people fight over due to there own passions. 

Argument over the appropriate length of the worship pastor’s beard. Fight over whether to build a children’s playground or to use the land for a cemetery. A deacon accusing another deacon of sending an anonymous letter and deciding to settle the matter in the parking lot.

A church dispute of whether to install restroom stall dividers in the women’s restroom. A church argument and vote to decide if a clock in the worship center should be removed.

A 45-minute heated argument over the type of filing cabinet to purchase: black or brown; 2, 3, or 4 drawers. A fight over which picture of Jesus to put in the foyer. A petition to have all church staff clean shaven.

A dispute over whether the worship leader should have his shoes on during the service. A big church argument over the discovery that the church budget was off $0.10. Someone finally gave a dime to settle the issue.

Quarrels, battles and arguments sometimes happen for many small and inconsequential reasons, but for the most part when it happens in the church it is due to passions being in the wrong place. 

What are you passionate about? Does your own will come before the will of God? Do your own personal preferences come before others? The passions of the heart can be a tricky thing sometimes. 

What we are going to look at today is To Know Jesus means the passions of our heart and the need for them to not be on our own pride and the world but rather on Humbly submitting to God and living our lives for Him.

Pray

4:1-3 – Passions at war

Yet we are called to know Jesus as that is what the gospel is, to Know Jesus. To know Jesus means that we are declared as having a right standing before God through faith and giving our hearts completely to Jesus. 

This is what we went into last week. Today we are going to look more into the heart, what it means to give our hearts to Jesus and make sure that the passions of our hearts are in the right place. 

So, we start out with battles and fights amongst the people of the Lord. For this passage deals specifically with the people of God. 

James 4:1 (CSB) What is the source of wars and fights among you? 

What is the cause of battles and fights among us? This is a question that many people ask. The nations rage and fight, yet the church is supposed to dwell together in unity. 

Wars is a strong word to use but I believe that James Is trying to get a point across here. This passage is referring again to us as believers and we are reminded that often even the church results to battling and fighting. 

We know that the nations rage and scheme. Psalm 2 tells us this, the people rage and scheme against each other and against the Lord for they do not know God and they Hate God and often hate each other. 

But the people of God are not supposed to battle and war, they are supposed to dwell together in unity. 

Psalm 133:1 (CSB)1 How delightfully good when brothers live together in harmony!

It is a sad thing then when the people of God start to look like the people of the world and can not get along. But why is it that the people of God can not always get along? 

Well, the second half of verse 1 tells us this Do not they come from your passions that wage war within you?

The passions of our heart are in the wrong place. We have a sinful heart, and the heart will at times crave the things of the world and sinful things to lead you astray. This has ben going on for a long time. 

The Corinthian church was suing each other and competing with each other in public meetings, the Galatian church was “biting and devouring” one another, the Ephesian church had to be reminded to cultivate unity in their midst. 

This is no new thing to have to deal with the passions of our hearts waging war with others in our midst. 

Even now we see churches that battle and split over whether to sing hymns or new songs, over furniture in the church over many little things because the passions of our hearts start to focus on the wrong things. 

So what happens? When we want something to happen that seems to be a passion of the heart but is about you and not others and God? We desire and covet and fight for what we want until we get it, sometime no matter the cost. 

James 4:2 (CSB)2 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.

There is a battle at war within all of us individually. A battle to do what the sinful heart wants, to fall to the cravings of the flesh or to follow the word of our Lord. 

Then comes the much-misquoted verse in the bible you do not have because you do not ask. Given the context of the verse, we ask and do not get because when we do ask it is often for the passions of our own hearts to spend on the passions of whatever our pleasures seem to be. James 4:3 (CSB)3 You ask and don’t receive because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.

Our motives are all in the wrong place? But where are our passions supposed to be then? If wrongly placed passions result in sinful attitudes, then where are our passions supposed to be? 

4:4-6 – 2 passions – the world (pride) God (Humility)

We have two different places that we are told we can place our passions. The first James tells us about is this

James 4:4–5 (CSB)4 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. 5 Or do you think it’s without reason that the Scripture says: The spirit he made to dwell in us envies intensely?,

Friendship with the world means hostility towards God, becoming an enemy of the Lord. The imagery here again is a big thing that we have to look into. It again comes back to the passions of the heart. 

Friendship with the world is seen as cheating on God, the imagery used is that of a marriage relationship. But what is meant by this? 

James speaks of the world as a place that we need to be kept unstained from a place where the poor in faith dwell. The best way to get an idea on what this means, we need to go to 1 John 2:15-17 which tells us Do not love the world or the things in the world. The love of the Father is not in those who love the world; for all that is in the world—the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, the pride in riches—comes not from the Father but from the world. And the world and its desire are passing away, but those who do the will of God live forever.1

When the passions of our heart are set on the world it sets us against God. There are to many pleasures of the flesh that draw us away. We can not do both. 

When the Passions of our heart are set on the world it puts us at odds with the body of Christ as well for our values turn to worldly things at the expense of faithfully seeking the will of God for the church. It starts to put us at war with each other. For the will of the Lord is often seen as foolishness to those whose passion is on the world. 

We are reminded though that rather then pridefully seeking our own way, we need to humbly seek the Lord in all that we do. James 4:6 (CSB)6 But he gives greater grace. Therefore he says: God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.,

The passions of the heart are supposed to be in humbly seeking the Lord in all that we do. It does not matter what we have done in our pursuit of worldly passions, God will give grace to those who seek Him in Humility. 

4:7-10 – Humbly submit to God

James 4:7–8 (CSB)7 Therefore, submit 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, sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

Do you struggle with the passions of the heart? You try and try to seek the Lord in all you do but it seems like all you do is fail? 

We need to humbly submit our hearts to the Lord and the devil will flee from us. This takes practice and hard work though. It often will not happen overnight. 

The more we seek God in our struggles the easier it is to withstand the temptations of the world that are thrown our way. It is not that we are never tempted again but rather that when we are tempted our hearts are Guarded by the seeking God in all we do. 

What are we called to? We are called to purity in all that we do. This imagery goes back to the Old Testament where people had to be cleansed before they entered the presence of the Lord in the temple. 

That is that we need to set the passions of our hearts right as we enter into the presence of the Lord. We are called to moral purity in all that we do. 

So what

Where are the passions of your heart? This is a question that we must face. The passion of our hearts if focused on the wrong place can cause quarrels battles, fights, church splits and so on. 

It becomes an obstacle to answered prayer in our lives because when we go to God in prayer all we are asking for is for our own prideful “needs” and desires. 

The passions of our hearts need to be on humbly submitting to God in all that we do. Psalm 24:3–4 (CSB)3 Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place? 4 The one who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not appealed to what is false, and who has not sworn deceitfully.

So then what do we do? We need to pray for the Lord to humble us and search our hearts and see if there be any wicked way in us. 

The ways of the world, the desires and needs and lusts of the world mean that we are not seeking God and become enemies of God. 

To Know Jesus means that we need to give our hearts to God, that in all we do our passion, our desires will be to draw closer to God in all we do. 

To pray for God to search us, cleanse us and humble us is a dangerous thing to do. Because He might just do it. But the results make it so worth it. 

Are you struggling personally with sin in your life or following the sins of the world? Then seek God, submit the passions of your heart to Him.

The more that we do this the less hold temptation is going to have on your life. 

As a church we are seeking God’s will for where He wants us and how he wants us to get there. What happens when we worry about how we can afford to do what God has called us to do? Or worry about any aspect of the process, or maybe just are focusing on what we want rather then where God wants us? 

I understand this is a big step of faith. If our passions are on ourselves then all that will happen is quarrels and fights. 

Do you truly know Jesus? Or do you genuinely want to know Jesus? Then we need to Humbly submit the Passions of our hearts to Him. 

Pray through scripture instead of praying from the heart. The heart can lead us astray, but the scriptures never will. 

10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you. 2