Sam opened the James series and did a great job. What did he say? The book of James is about growing up. It’s a great book, actually a letter, to help us understand how we are impacted by God’s grace and we then grow up and apply God into our daily lives. James is our manual for Spiritual Growth. It challenges us to take our faith and practically put it into action. That process is called, ‘growing up in Christ.’ That means we are so impacted by God’s grace, our faith is so real, that it shows up daily in how we live life.
Probably the central verse in this whole letter is James 2:17
So you see, it isn’t enough just to have faith. Faith that doesn’t show itself by good deeds is no faith at all – it is dead and useless. NLT
So how do you know you are growing up?
Week one, how do you know you are growing up, Sam said, “In how you deal with hard times.” How do you respond when someone passes away? How do you respond when you lose your job? How do you respond when you kid is cut in sports?
Week two, how do you know you are going up, Sam and Kim said, “In how you treat others.” How do you treat your husband/wife? How do you treat your parents? How do you treat people at work?
Week three, how do you know you are going up, TJ said, “Look at what comes out of your mouth.” What comes out? Nasty and vulgar things? Negative, critical, judgmental words? Or encouraging words?
To start today, I want to share six statements with you. I want you to listen to them/read them and see if you connect with one or a couple of them. James wrote this letter to the Jewish Christians and the following six statements explained how they were feeling. Do you connect with any of them?
I feel a constant frustration with God.
I pray and I get no answers and nothing happens.
Christianity feels more like a struggle to me than joy.
Following Christ hasn’t really given me what I wanted, not sure I like it.
Everything I try to do or accomplish, I seem to go nowhere with it, it just falls apart.
I appear to others that I do the right things but the truth is, I have secret motives like: I want power, revenge, status or to be validated by others.
Do you connect with any or a couple of these statements? We will come back to this later in my talk.
In the book of James, Jesus’ brother James is talking to the Jewish Christians. Historians say that they had a reputation as being argumentative, quarrelsome and divisive people. That attitude led them to have a lot of battles with each other in the Jewish community and with the Romans. So James writes them the following…
James 4:1-10
4:1 What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Isn’t it because there is a whole army of evil desires within you? 2 You want what you don’t have, so you kill to get it. You long for what others have, and can’t afford it, so you start a fight to take it away from them. And yet the reason you don’t have what you want is that you don’t ask God for it. 3 And even when you do ask you don’t get it because your whole aim is wrong-you want only what will give you pleasure.
4 You are like an unfaithful wife who loves her husband’s enemies. Don’t you realize that making friends with God’s enemies-the evil pleasures of this world-makes you an enemy of God? I say it again, that if your aim is to enjoy the evil pleasure of the unsaved world, you cannot also be a friend of God. 5 Or what do you think the Scripture means when it says that the Holy Spirit, whom God has placed within us, watches over us with tender jealousy? 6 But he gives us more and more strength to stand against all such evil longings. As the Scripture says, God gives strength to the humble but sets himself against the proud and haughty. TLB
James goes after them and just blows them up. He’s unfiltered and blunt and says ‘You guys are messed up and this is why.’ The reason you have endless arguments and are such a pain do deal with, is because you are selfish to your core. Your selfish desires are exploding inside you and they are ruining your relationships. You tell people that you are arguing for what is right but the truth is you have secret selfish desires coming out of you.
To make matters worse, you don’t pray. Actually, if you did pray you wouldn’t get an answer because your motives are all wrong. You’re not in love with God, you are in love with everything this world has to offer you. You are cheating on God. The bottom line, you’re a mess because you love this world. You actually have become an enemy of God and you don’t realize it.
The Jewish Christians are frustrated. They are angry. They are constantly frustrated. They are constantly disappointed. Why? Nothing is working. They are focused on what others have and what the Romans have. They are focused on wanting their own way. Nothing is happening, they are stuck. So what is left? They demand, they fight, they argue.
This is how they must have felt. Do you connect with the following?
I feel a constant frustration with God.
I pray and I get no answers and nothing happens.
Christianity feels more like a struggle to me than joy.
Following Christ hasn’t really given me what I wanted, not sure I like it.
Everything I try to do or accomplish, I seem to go nowhere with it, I just falls apart.
I appear to others that I do the right things but the truth is, I have secret motives like: I want power, revenge, status or to be validated by others.
James tells them, the reason you are in this spot, you are fighting against God. It’s called pride. You fight God. You struggle to follow God because you demand your own way. Your happiness, your joy, your meaning is centered in this world, not in God. Your pride is leading you away from God.
Can you connect with this? We pray for comfort and success but not to advance God’s kingdom but to consume more and satisfy every craving we have. James says, God set’s Himself against the proud.
Maybe this isn’t you.
Maybe it is.
Maybe, your frustrated because you are fighting against God.
James continues in verse 7 and explains how we can hit the spiritual reset button in your life. Every time you do this, it works. So how we can move from cheating on God back to being in love with God?
James 4:1-10
7 So give yourselves humbly to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. 8 And when you draw close to God, God will draw close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and let your hearts be filled with God alone to make them pure and true to him. 9 Let there be tears for the wrong things you have done. Let there be sorrow and sincere grief. Let there be sadness instead of laughter, and gloom instead of joy. 10 Then when you realize your worthlessness before the Lord, he will lift you up, encourage and help you. TLB
To hit the spiritual reset button, you need three things.
- Recognize that falling in love with the world and all it has to offer is adultery, you are actually cheating on God. That means you think you will find happiness, joy and meaning in this world, not in God. You tend to think, ‘I would rather have more comfort, safety and money than have more of God.’ Stop this love affair you are having with the world. End that relationship.If someone calls me and says, “I’m having an affair what do I do?” The first response is END IT. Call and tell them, we are done forever. No more. That’s how we need to deal with our love affair with this world.Remember, God is a jealous God.
- Humble yourself. That means live a life that pleases God more than anything else. After you end your affair with the world, come back to God and fall in love again. Your motive to live out the day is no longer to get power, revenge, statues or validation from others. No. Today, we live to please God.
Now notice what James did not say. He did not say, you can’t enjoy life. He did not say, you can’t enjoy the world. He didn’t say that. He said, be humble. You absolutely enjoy life and this world but don’t fall in love with it. Love is reserved for God.
There is a difference between enjoying this world, like vacation and loving the evil pleasures of this world. Please don’t read this and conclude things like; the poorer you are the holier you are. No. James simply saying, be humble, love God, live everyday to honor Him.
3. Daily resist any temptation to fall in love with this world. Break your stubborn, prideful will that tells you to fight and demand what this world has to offer. The affair you had, after you ended it and went back to God; stop wanting to pick that affair up again. Don’t look at her. Don’t go on dates with her. Stop it. Don’t text him anymore. It’s ended. Declare your dependence on God.
So, how do you know you are growing up?
How do you deal with hard times?
How do you treat others?
What comes out of your mouth?
Who are you in love with, the world or God?
Today, you can hit the spiritual reset button. It works every time. 1.) Recognize that maybe you are in love with this world more than with God. End your love affair. 2.) Humble yourself. Live today to please God. Fall back in love with God. 3.) Lastly, break that stubborn, prideful will that fights against what God is asking you to do. Don’t even think about picking up that old affair.
Are you in love with God or are you having an affair?