Human Desire

Have you ever wanted something so bad that you just had to have it and were willing to do almost anything for it? I’m guessing we all have at one time or another in our lives, but would you have gone so far to steal or kill to get it? Maybe we wouldn’t go that far, but we certainly may have thought about what it would take to get that thing, whatever it was. Desire is a powerful thing for us, as humans, to deal with. It can drive us to do things that we might not otherwise do and it is something that the enemy can so easily use to manipulate us into taking our eyes off of Christ and what he desires.

However, it is also important to notes that our desires in and of themselves are not always bad. They can be positive, but the danger is when we allow our desires to get in the way of what we should do as a follower of Christ. Here are a couple of examples:

William Randolph Hearst was a very wealthy newspaper publisher who had an incredible collection of art. The Hearst mansion in northern California is a testament to his insatiable desire for artistic treasures. On one occasion he learned of some artwork he was determined to obtain. He sent his agent abroad to search for the treasure. After months of investigating, the agent reported that the treasure had been found. To further sweeten the find, Hearst learned that the relic wouldn’t cost him a dime. He already owned it. The rediscovered piece was in Hearst’s warehouse with many other treasures that had likewise never been uncrated.

The desire for acquiring more can sometimes blind us from what we already possess. (https://ministry127.com/resources/illustration/unaware-of-his-possessions)

It took less than ten seconds for Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt to cover the one hundred meter distance on the Olympic track and win the gold medal in London. Those few seconds cemented his status as the “fastest man alive” and placed him on the winner’s podium once again. But the race was not won in those seconds—it was won by hours and hours of practice, workouts, weightlifting, special diet, and coaching.

The race was not won in the performance but in the preparation. It is our desire for something greater that causes us to sacrifice some things, even some good things, for the sake of things that are better. (https://ministry127.com/resources/illustration/the-fastest-man-alive)

Turn with me this morning to James 4, as we look at what we can learn from this passage as it relates to our desires.

James 4:1–12 NIV

1 What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? 2 You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. 3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. 4 You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. 5 Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us? 6 But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.” 7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up. 11 Brothers and sisters, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against a brother or sister or judges them speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it. 12 There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you—who are you to judge your neighbor?

A short chapter, but there is quite a bit packed in there. There are two main themes we will investigate this morning as we seek to understand more about our desires.

First is that our desires can bring division to the body of Christ.

Second is the grace that God extends to us.

Our Desires Can Bring Division to the Body of Christ

The first five verses of this passage seem confrontational. James appears to get right to the point. Fights and quarrels - James is arguing that they come from the desires within us cause problems among us. James is referring to some type of fight or conflict within people (within you in verse 1). It refers to the evil desires (in other words the desires that do not line up with Christ) within people, in particular lust and envy. The problem with these desires is that they never live up to the hype - they never deliver what is promised.

There is some debate on whether these first couple of verses can also metaphorically to members of the community. If we are acting on these evil desires in our own lives, they will eventually boil over into the community of which we are a part. These desires eventually will lead to things which become more visible outside our ourselves when they don’t deliver on what they promised. James refers to murder and envy.

James 4:2 NIV

2 You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God.

There is question as to whether murder lies in the original text and if people in this community were resorting to something like this, but it is entirely possible that even if they had not actually committed the act, they did in their hearts. This is where the problem starts to come into play. When we are feeding our human desires and have not allowed God to change us, our desires as they go unfulfilled will eventually start to ooze out of us. Remember the old saying “garbage in garbage out?” The Jews were asking for things that would bring them pleasure versus those things that will develop character and virtue in them. Here’s the thing - God will not answer prayers like this.

Even if we are not arguing and fighting to get what we want but instead are praying these kinds of prayers to God, we will not receive them - God will not answer prayers with evil or selfish intent. Our motives matter when we come before God with our prayers and petitions.

We find this true today. I bet we would not have to think too hard about the last time we saw a commercial that was trying to entice to do something or buy something because it “feels good.” Western culture encourages us to fulfill our desires and “live life” by seeking pleasure. It encourages us to seek what is good for us - regardless of someone else. We certainly do not see encouragement to suffer trials and difficulties, even though we are told by our Savior himself that we will.

Ultimately, when we go through adversity and times of trials or suffering, it produces character within us.

I would argue that this message in James 4 is just as relevant to us today as it was to the recipients of this letter. We live in a time where people allow their desires to rule them in many areas of life, and the church is not immune to this. In the church, we pray prayers that are misguided. We are asking for things that feed the intent of our desires, not for things that are in line with God’s desires. I would argue we see that playing out with how the church has been impacted by politics, LGBTQ+, and a myriad of other conversations going on in our culture. We tend to think of prayer like going to God’s vending machine for what we want. In fact, selfishness (including treating God like a vending machine for whatever desires we have at the moment) is at the center of conflicts in the church and ultimately will keep us from making disciples and serving the least of these. We cannot do these things if we are divided as the body of Christ.

God wants to give us the desires of our hearts, but here is the catch - our hearts are to be right with God first because that will shape our desires into things that are not determined to harm us. We will never find contentment in those things, but instead in things that benefit us AND others eternally.

Here is the main issue, and we see this in verses 4 and 5, we cannot be both of the world and of God. We need to understand that we are either of God and his kingdom or we are of the world. If we are of God and his kingdom, it will give us a different perspective because we are citizens of the Kingdom of God first and foremost and citizens of our worldly addresses second. Our primary citizenship will inform what we do on this earth - and here is the part that is hard to hear - it may not line up with any particular view of things where we live.

James is quite clear about this in verse 4:

James 4:4 NIV

4 You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.

C.S. Lewis wrote in Mere Christianity, “Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exists. A baby feels hunger; well, there is such a thing as food. A duckling wants to swim; well, there is such a thing as water. . . .

If I find in myself a desire that no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. If none of my earthly pleasures satisfy it, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud. Probably, earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing.”

Grace that God Extends to Us

I love how verse 6 starts - “But he gives us more grace.” God’s grace never runs out.

James: A Commentary in the Wesleyan Tradition Behind the Text

In the OT prophets, one hears:

• “Return to me … and I will return to you” (Zech 1:3 and Mal 3:7).

• “Your hands are full of blood; wash and make yourselves clean” (Isa 1:15b–16a).

• “O Jerusalem, wash the evil from your heart and be saved. How long will you harbor wicked thoughts?” (Jer 4:14).

Wisdom literature counsels:

• “But for me, it is good to be near God. I have made the Sovereign LORD my refuge; I will tell of all your deeds” (Ps 73:28).

• “Who may ascend the hill of the LORD? Who may stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to an idol or swear by what is false” (Ps 24:3–4).

• “I hate double-minded men, but I love your law” (Ps 119:113).

• “The lowly he sets on high, and those who mourn are lifted to safety” (Job 5:11).

We see this play out in the parable of the prodigal son in Luke 15. Even though the son did all those things to satisfy his selfish self, the father was waiting with open arms when he returned. The good news this morning friends is that God’s grace is always available no matter what you have done or where you have been. However, we have a part to play. We must be willing to humble ourselves, submit ourselves to God (become subject of - leads to obedience) and to resist the devil (in other words those human, selfish desires). I want to stop here for a moment and dig into this word resist. It isn’t a passive resist - but instead means “to be in opposition to, set oneself against, oppose....to be resistant to power. This type of resistance means to take sides. To speak out against our enemy and those systems which the enemy uses to thrive and divide people from being united in Christ. We cannot do this on our own - we need God’s power within us to resist in this manner.

The we get to verse eight and we find out just how we can tap into that power. Come near to God (growing in our walk with God continually by developing better habits and becoming a true disciples of Christ) and he will come near to us. This cannot happen if we are not sold out in our commitment to God - if we have one foot toward God and one foot in the world, we are against God - it is pretty clear that this is the case. This should be a warning to us as followers of Jesus just how seriously God takes this. We must humble ourselves and submit to God and God alone.

You may wonder why we see verses 11 and 12 in this part of the letter. They directly correspond to the verses just before them. Actions such as slander and judgement are not in line with God and in fact are not part of being submissive to God, as they are actions that are outside of God’s character. Instead, we see the reminder of neighbor in verse 12 - actions such as slander and judgement are not in line with loving our neighbors as we see emphasized earlier in James letter. This also can lead to people seeing us as not living up to what we preach/teach and not lining up with Scripture, thus giving the church a black eye.

Philip Sheldrake wrote, “Desire haunts us. In its deepest sense, it is a God-given dimension of human identity. As such, desire is what powers all human spirituality. Yet at the same time, spirituality in Christianity and in other faiths is concerned with how we focus our desire. At the heart of Christian spirituality is the sense that humanity is both cursed and blessed with restlessness and longing that can only ultimately be satisfied in God.

It is as though our desire is infinite in extent and that it cannot settle for anything less. It pushes us through the limitations of the present moment and of our present places towards a future that is beyond our ability to conceive. This is why the greatest teachers of Christian spirituality were so concerned with this God-filled desire and with how we understand it and channel it.” (Philip Sheldrake, Befriending Our Desires, Liturgical Press, 2016.)

It isn’t wrong for us to have desires - it is a natural human thing. however, what we learn from James is that it is important for us to channel our desires in line with the example we see from Jesus himself. As we grow in relationship with him, our desires will look less selfish and about us while looking more like concern for others. It looks more like unity in spirit and purpose within the body of Christ and less like the issues of this world that we let divide us. It looks more like giving ourselves wholly over to God and God’s purposes.

Elizabeth Keckley was a slave in Missouri before the Civil War. Her greatest desire was to purchase freedom for herself and her son. Her owner agreed that if she could raise $1,200 she could gain her freedom. Keckley worked as a seamstress and came up with a plan to go to New York City and work there to raise the money, but her owner feared that she would not return.

Instead, some of her wealthy clients in St. Louis contributed the money she needed, and Elizabeth Keckley paid the price for her freedom as well as her son’s. She moved to Washington, DC, where she counted Mary Lincoln among her dressmaking clients. Without the help of someone else, Keckley would never have been able to purchase her freedom.

All of us were enslaved to sin with no hope of ever gaining freedom. In mercy and compassion, Jesus gave His life for us, purchasing our salvation by shedding His blood on the cross. We are now free from sin, but that freedom does not mean that we do whatever we want. Instead we are to live how Jesus wants us to live. (https://ministry127.com/resources/illustration/christ-bought-our-salvation)

This morning, as we close, we are going to sing the hymn I Surrender All, and I want us to spend a few moments with god in prayer considering this gift that we are free from sin, but are we living in the way that Jesus wants us to live or are we still really doing whatever it i that we want.