James Chapter 4

vs. 1-3

- James starts with a question. What causes the fights and quarrels among us? Where do they come from? Is it just because people are hard to get along with? Is it because personalities clash so bad? That's the way we're created right? To be individuals and assert our individuality on the rest of the world's population?

- I John 3:14-19

- Rather, instead of giving you the option of those oh so well used excuses, James says no. They come from the evil desires at war inside you. These, we have been given orders to fight.

- This is a constant battle. It never ends. Our sinful nature is a part of us post-fall. It's constantly fighting for precedence. Constantly trying to take control of your life. Of your soul.

- These evil desires birth within us selfish desires that refuse to be quenched. James says “you want what you don't have, so you scheme and kill to get it.”

- When Self takes over, nobody else matters. You will do anything to get where you want to be or get what you want.

- Remember David? He saw Bathsheba. (something he wanted) and what did he do? He slept with her, got her pregnant, then killed her husband to cover up the fact that the husband didn't get her pregnant, then took Bathsheba as his wife to further cover the whole thing up, THEN! HE LIED TO THE PROPHET OF GOD ABOUT IT! (Which is basically like lying to God's face...) THIS! Is the man that God called “a man after His own heart.” What? Murderer. Adulterer. Liar. All because Self took over for a minute. All because Pride said, “you're the king! Do what you want! You're in control!” Where was David's heart? Where was the man who was living a life so full of God? Lost in Self.

- II Samuel 11 and 12

- Maybe for you it's money. Maybe it's food. Maybe it's pride and accomplishments. Maybe it's material things. The bigger and more expensive, the better. Maybe it's the opposite sex. Always have to be dating someone. Always have to find the best of the best.

- Whatever your Bathsheba is... How hard to you fight for it? Are you willing to beg, borrow, or steal to get your hands on it? How about kill?

- Are you jealous enough of another person to let hate take root in your heart against them? Cain was.

- Genesis 4:1-16

- Are you waging a war with a mercenary crew of Self behind you?

- James goes on to say that, even in fighting for what you want, you'll never get it. Greed will always thirst for more. And Jealousy and Greed will never be satisfied.

- He says that we don't have what we want because we don't ask God for it.

- Ask and ye shall receive right? So we are in want because we haven't asked. Well I want a new house and a new job and a new car and... if I ask God is He going to give all that to me? Because I want it!

- James says that even when we do ask God, we don't get what we want because our motives are wrong. We want things that will give US pleasure. We're not looking at the things of God. We're looking at our fleshly desires.

- Matthew 16:24-28

- I John 3:14-15

- Psalm 37:4 says “Take delight in the Lord, and He will give you your heart's desires.”

- Does this mean that anything we want we can ask for and get?

- But Jeremiah 17:9-10 says that “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is? But I, the Lord, search all hearts and examine secret motives. I give all people their due rewards , according to what their actions deserve.”

- These two scriptures seem to be contradictory at first glance. You have to read in the context of the whole thing. Psalm 37:3-7 says “Trust in the Lord and do good. Then you will live safely in the land and prosper. (IF you trust in the Lord, THEN you will live safe.) Take delight in the Lord, and He will give you your heart's desires. (IF you take delight, THEN you will have your heart's desires.) Commit everything you do to the Lord. Trust Him, and He will help you. He will make your innocence radiate like the dawn, and the justice of your cause will shine like the noonday sun. (IF, THEN) Be still in the presence of the Lord, and wait patiently for Him to act...”

- These all go hand in hand. The desires of our heart are in the middle of all the rest of those things. If we trust, then God will prosper us. And if we take delight in the Lord, then He will give us our heart's desires. If we commit everything to God and trust Him (again with the trust!) then he will help us and He will make our innocence radiate like the dawn and the justice of our cause (our witness, our mission...) shine like the noonday sun. Be still and wait for God to act.

- If we commit everything to God and trust Him, then our heart's desires will not be our own anyway. And if God only knows our heart... if not even WE know our heart because it is so deceiving... Then how do we know what the desires of our heart are anyway?

- What are our motives for our actions? Our actions show what's in our heart. They show the things that even we don't see in ourselves. If our actions are selfish, they reflect a selfish heart. God and only God knows our heart inside and out. He knows our motives. If our motives are based on Self, our heart will be the tell-tale witness to that fact.

- So what about the things we want? What about all our hopes and dreams for our life? What about good things that we want? Like marriage. Or kids. Or to live in a good place. What about things like that? Aren't those good things? They're not selfish right?

- Matthew 7:7-11

- I've been struggling with some things this week. I went to the doctor a few weeks ago about my finger again. Second time he's had to cut into it. I thought it was looking pretty good. He just wanted to see it and make sure it was healing okay. So I walked in thinking it was going to be a 5 minute visit tops... and he says... “I don't like how this looks...” So... he cut a chunk out of it for biopsy and sent it for tests. So for a week I had stitches and pain and trying to figure out why God is yet again allowing this. I have prayed every prayer I know to pray in the last few months including “God I don't know what to pray for, please help me pray...”

- I started piano lessons this semester with a man at the University who usually only takes performance majors... and I'm not a performance major... and now I can't use my left hand. So I've had two lessons using only the right hand. And I feel completely useless in this. What's the use in going down and wasting this man's time (patient saint that he is...) for practically nothing?

- So it's another week right? Not a big deal. The hole will heal and I'll be able to play in a couple weeks. But this week, on Wednesday, the finger started to swell back up again like it did the first time. It has burned and hurt and caused massive amounts of pain all week... all over again.

- And mom was telling me about Job Friday... How God allowed Satan to do something in Job's life to prove Job's faith. To prove Job's heart. And you know... the end of Job, God asks Job a bunch of questions like... Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Who kept the sea inside its boundaries as it burst forth from the womb? Have you ever commanded the morning to appear and caused the dawn to rise in the east? Have you explored the springs from which the seas come? Where does light come from, and where does darkness go? Etc. etc. etc.... In other words... who are you in comparison with Me? Who are you to question how or why I do the things I do? What gives you the right as created being to ask Me what MY motives are? What MY plan is?

- God knows what He's doing... and all day Friday for me was a day about “what are my motives?”

- Why do I want this degree? Is it necessary? Will I still be faithful to God if He closes that door? What if I lose my finger? Will I still trust that God knows what He's doing? Will I be able to continue to praise my God even if I have to relearn how to play my instruments? Even if it means that I am not physically whole?

- And then I went a little further... I've been struggling with a lot of things lately... and only one of them being my finger...

- So I started thinking about all the things I want out of life... better things... husband, kids, house of my own, college job, grad degree, doctorate even maybe... And I really had to take a step back...

- Why do I want these? Are they something that God has placed in my heart, or are they just things that I want for me... Are they selfish things? Am I looking at my life as I want it to be, or am I seeing the path God wants for me? I may want seemingly good things for my life... in some aspects, they ARE good things... but are they the BEST things for my life? Are they wants and desires that God wants for my life? Are they things that work towards HIS purpose? Are they things that will in the long run further the work of the Kingdom?

- And will I be faithful regardless of the outcomes of those? If God asks me to give up my hopes, my dreams, my aspirations, for something greater that He has planned for my life... even without knowing what it is... will I still be found faithful to my God? What will my heart's condition show? Will I be focusing on my selfish desires for my life? Or will I allow God to work in my heart to show me HIS heart's desires?

- Have I been wasting my time in wanting things that I only want because they will make me happy? Have I been considering anyone other than myself in these hopes and dreams? Have I been thinking about what God wants for me? Have I been praying for God to show me what to do and REALLY mean it when I ask? Where's my heart?

- And I'm not sure right now what the answer to that is. But I know that it's something I really need to question on my own for a while... I know that I need to make sure that my heart is not pulling me away from God. I know I need to be willing for God to change my entire life plan right now... And I know I need to be ready to accept God's will for my life regardless of what it looks like to me... I'm just not sure I'm totally there yet. I want to be. I want to be so sold out that nothing matters outside God's will... but... There's a lot of things that I have to deal with before I get to that place... There's a lot of things that... I have to learn to let go of in order to embrace what God has for me. You can't embrace somebody while holding an armful of other things... not even a handful of things... So... I know I have to completely let go of everything in order to embrace what God has for me... So this is the next step for my life...

vs. 4-10

- anyway... moving on! : )

- James calls us adulterers. Friendship with the world, makes us enemies with God. Living in the world, partaking in what it has to offer, makes us an enemy of God Himself.

- ouch... James is so adamant on this point... that he repeats himself... which means... if all scripture is inspired by God... then God just repeated a point... apparently He thought it was important...

- I've read through like 6 translations of vs. 5... I have two possible versions of this section...

- Version 1: “The Holy Spirit, Whom God has placed within us, opposes our envy.” We look at the things in the world, the people of the world... and it looks good. It looks fun. And we envy their freedom. Their happiness. Their life.

- But God gives us grace to stand against such evil desires. What the world has, is not what we need. And to want what the world has, is an evil desire. We just talked about our motives in our wants... Our heart since the fall is full of evil desires, fleshly desires. Desires that don't come from God but rather from the very first sin of wanting something we couldn't have...

- John 15:18-19

- I John 2:15-17

- II Corinthians 6:14-18

- Psalm 73

- Version 2: “Or do you suppose that the Scripture is speaking to no purpose that says, The Spirit Whom He has caused to dwell in us yearns over us AND He yearns for the Spirit [to be welcome] with a jealous love?”

- There's a reference given in the above amplified version from Jeremiah 3:14- “Return home, you wayward children,” says the Lord, “for I am your master. I will bring you back to the land of Israel—one from this town and two from that family—from wherever you are scattered.”

- And another from Hosea 2:19-20- “I will make you my wife forever, showing you righteousness and justice, unfailing love and compassion. I will be faithful to you and make you mine, and you will finally know me as the Lord.”

- These references and the above version says to me that God longs for us with a lovers longing. He has put His Spirit in us to dwell in us... and the Spirit in us yearns for more of the Spirit of God. He longs to grow in the relationship with us. Longs for us to know more of Him. Longs for us to invite Him to do more in our lives.

- And when we invite more of Him into our lives, when we welcome the Spirit in and embrace Him with love, we grow in strength. We have no strength in and of ourselves, but as the Spirit gives us strength to fight, we are given more and more grace to withstand the temptations that will come. But in order to invite God in to do more work on you, you have to submit to His will and submit to His plan...

- Proverbs 3:34 says “The Lord mocks the mockers but is gracious to the humble.” Or “The Lord opposes the proud but favors the humble.”

- So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

- I know a lot of people who focus on the last half of this verse. Resist the devil and he will flee! All we have to do is resist temptation! Except... you're missing the first half of the equation... Humble yourselves before God... THEN resist the devil.

- If you try resisting the devil on your own before you humble yourself and submit yourself to God... It's like volunteering for front line duty without having a weapon...

- Without submitting yourself to God and having His power and strength in you, you have no authority over Satan. Acts 19:13-20 tells the story of the seven sons of Sceva. This group of men were traveling from town to town casting out evil spirits. So at one point, they decided to use the Name of Jesus in their exorcism.... but when they tried it, the spirit replied with “I know Jesus, and I know Paul, but who are you?” And then the man who was possessed proceeded to leap on all seven of them... He attacked them and they ended up running from the house naked and beat up...

- Ephesians 6:10-18

- Why? They didn't have authority. Without having submitted to Christ, you have no authority against the enemy. You're fighting with no weapon, blind, and with broken legs. There's no possible way that you'll make any progress.

- Well how do you humble yourself before God then? James goes on to say that we need to come close to God and He will in turn come close to us. Wash your hands of sin, purify your hearts. Make sure your loyalty isn't divided between God and the world. Let there be tears for what you have done. Let there be sorrow and deep grief. Sadness instead of laughter, gloom instead of joy. Sorrow for your sin. A real turn from sin to repentance. A turning away from the old life. Wash your hands of your actions. Purify your hearts from evil desires. Submit yourself to a heart-cleaning from God.

- In this way, humble yourselves before God and in turn, He will lift you up in honor.

- Matthew 23:8-12

- I Peter 5:5-11

- Isaiah 1:10-20

- Zechariah 1:3-6

- Malachi 3:6-18

- footnote- “Bowing in humility before the Lord means recognizing that our worth comes from God alone. To be humble involves leaning on His power and His guidance, and not going our own independent way. Although we do not deserve God's favor, He wants to life us up and give us worth and dignity, despite our human shortcomings.”

vs. 11-12

- footnote- “Jesus summarized the law as love for God and neighbor (Matthew 22:37-40), and Paul said that love demonstrated toward a neighbor would fully satisfy the law (Romans 13:6-10). When we fail to love, we are actually breaking God's law. Examine your attitude and actions toward others. Do you build people up or tear them down? When you're ready to criticize someone, remember God's law of love and say something good instead. Saying something beneficial to others will cure you of finding fault and increase your ability to obey God's law of love.”

-Are you loving your neighbor as yourself? Are you sitting and nit-picking at every little thing they do that you perceive as wrong?

- Remember the questions that God asked Job? Who's God here? What right do you have as a created being to judge anything?

- I read a book a few months ago that had this section in it about judging. It was written a little as an allegory... I can't find the book and it's been a while, so I apologize if you know the story and I mess it up, but this is what I remember...

- A man who is very bitter and angry with the world about various things, is brought into a room with lady wisdom. And She's sitting at a judge's table. She asked him some questions about some basic rights and wrongs and then she invites him to sit in her chair.

- She starts with questions like “do you think the man who steals should be punished for his sin?” every question gets a little closer to home... “the dad who abuses his kids... should he be punished? Do you think the rapist should be punished for his sin? The man who sexually abuses children? Should he be punished? Let's go back further, the man who abuses children, had a dad who never gave him attention and who beat him... shouldn't his father be punished for causing his son to be this way?”

- And by the end of these questions that keep driving closer and closer to home, she says, “Well what about Adam? Sin started with him! Or even Eve! Wasn't it all their fault? Didn't sin come from them? Well then... can we not say that GOD caused sin? Did He not create the world? Did He not allow all this? Was all the wrong in the world not His fault?”

- And the man by this time is so frustrated and so ticked off at everything and in so much pain that he says “YES! Yes! It's GOD'S fault. It's all His fault. Everything that goes wrong is all His fault!”

- And she says “fine... how many kids do you have?” “3” “okay... pick one to go to hell.” “What?!” “If you can judge God, then surely you can judge the rest of the world as well.” “I can't pick one of my kids to go to hell!” “But you must. This is your job as judge.”

- In the end, he cries out that he can't. Please take him instead. He'll go in his child's place... (and this is to be a picture of what Christ did. He couldn't stand the thought that one of us, one of His children would go to hell... So He came in our place so that we wouldn't have to die...)

- But the point I want to make in all this... If you can judge one act, you can judge all. Or at least in your mind... because it's all interconnected. If you can judge your neighbor, then you can judge the neighbor's family, and you can judge their neighbors and you can judge politicians, and celebrities and people you've never met... And really... that's God's place. Because if you start judging the world, in essence, you are trying to judge God's application of the law and you're being a Jonah.

- Matthew 7:1-6

- I Peter 2:1-17

- Jonah ran from what he was supposed to do because he thought he knew better than God. He thought the people of Nineveh deserved to be punished for their sins... while God... saw broken hearts and broken lives crying out for a savior...

- Jonah 4:1-11

- God alone has the power to save or destroy. You have no right to make any such decision. It is your job to go and preach the gospel so that they might hear and be saved. To be a witness so that God CAN save more lives...

- Romans 1:18-32, 2:1-16, 14:4-13

vs. 13-17

- “Look here, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town and will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit. How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it's here a little while, then it's gone.”

- Proverbs 27:1

- Luke 12:16-34

- I am a woman of schedules... My weeks are always planned out a week or more ahead of time. I have so many things going on in my life that I HAVE to have a schedule because otherwise... nothing gets done... (I had a guy ask me out for coffee last semester and he didn't understand why I needed to schedule it in... I wanted him to pick a day... and he's like... eh... whenever we see each other... and I'm like... it doesn't work that way in Charity's world buddy...LOL)

- Is it wrong for me to plan ahead? No... Sometimes we have to make plans... like... weddings... You couldn't just on a whim go get your entire family together and go have a wedding... It would be total chaos!

- The point James is trying to make though is that sometimes things happen to change our plans. God steps in a lot of times and changes what we think should happen... The point is... not to get so caught up in our planning the future that we're stuck in a mindset and not willing to move when God says to do something different.

- Have you ever seen the movie “Lucky Number 7?” (Yeah I know... the joys of Hallmark... lol) This girl's mother died when she was a kid... but before she died, she drew a map of the life that at like age 6 this kid wanted. It was supposed to just be a way that the girl would remember that her mom was involved in her life.

- Well, the “plan” was go be a lawyer, take all these trips, go do all this stuff, and date 7 guys and number 7 was supposed to be the man she married...

- Well in the middle of all this... she meets a man she thinks is going to be the one. She's completely enthralled with this man... but she's only up to number 6... So she tries to find some guy to be number 6 so that her Mr. Perfect can be number 7 so that according to her mom's mapped out plan, she can marry the one she wants to...

- Well of course she falls for number 6... and she can't figure out how to make it work, because she's so stuck on this idea of having to marry the 7^th man she dates. (eventually she gets over it and marries the man she loves... it's Hallmark... what other ending would there be? : )

- Sometimes we get stuck like that. We get a plan in our heads and we can't deviate from it. When God throws something new at us, we balk and run away from it. It scares us because we're not in control and it's something that we didn't plan for. We don't have an emergency plan for this in case something goes wrong.

- You know when you pack for a long trip? You pack everything you can possibly think of that you might need... like... maps, tire pump, things to fix the car, extra batteries for flashlights, cell phone, first aid kit, clothes for any and every kind of weather, etc.

- But when God throws something at us, sometimes it's like going on a cross country trip on a whim. You just hop in the car and go without packing so much as a toothbrush...

- And that's scary! But James says our life is like the morning fog. It's here a little while and then it's gone.

- footnote- “Life is short no matter how many years we live. Don't be deceived into thinking that you have lots of remaining time to live for Christ, to enjoy your loved ones, or to do what you know you should. Live for God today! Then no matter when your life ends, you will have fulfilled God's plan for you.”

- What we SHOULD say is “If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that.” BECAUSE! Otherwise, you are boasting about your OWN plans and all such boasting is evil.

- What? Evil? Because to boast that we know where we're going to be in 5 years, or 5 months, or 5 days from now, is assuming that we know better than God. God could choose to move you tomorrow. He could move you today!

- The question is, are you planning with God in mind, or are you just planning. Are you planning with God's will in mind? Or (looking back at our selfish desires) are you looking at what YOU want out of life and planning accordingly?

- James says “it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it.”

- Luke 12:35-48

- If God tells you to go do something, and it conflicts with your schedule... so you don't do it... it's sin.

- footnote- “We tend to think that DOING wrong is sin. But James tells us that sin is also NOT doing right. (These two kinds of sin are sometimes called sins of commission and sins of omission.) It is a sin to lie; it can also be a sin to know the truth and not tell it. It is a sin to speak evil of someone; it is also a sin to avoid that person when you know he or she needs your friendship. You should be willing to help as the Holy Spirit guides you. If God has directed you to do a kind act, to render a service, or to restore a relationship, do it. You will experience a renewed and refreshed vitality to your Christian faith.”

- Are you willing to make a move when God asks it of you? Are you willing to step out in faith even if it's not really what you had planned for the day?