Latest / Living Waters of Grace / Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland Sunday Services / James 3:17-4:6 - Godly Wisdom vs Worldly Wisdom - Part 2

Transcript

James 3:17-4:6 - Godly Wisdom vs Worldly Wisdom - Part 2 · Living Waters of Grace / Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland Sunday Services

• 0:00
  Good morning, Calvary Chapel. Amen.
• 0:02
  It's good to see everybody this morning.
• 0:04
  Please turn in your Bibles with us, please to chapter James,
• 0:07
  chapter 4 and we are going to be reading from that area.
• 0:16
  Just want to welcome everybody that's here this morning,
• 0:18
  everybody who's here for the first time.
• 0:21
  Those of you who can just continue to come and be a
• 0:23
  blessing in the house. We thank God for all of you and
• 0:27
  of course those who are listening on any platform and
• 0:29
  those behind prison walls, we thank God for you always.
• 0:32
  Thank God for all of you. I do want to mention really
• 0:35
  quick though, before we do get into the word, yesterday we had
• 0:38
  a blessed time in a session with the Gideons that is led by our
• 0:46
  brother here. Fred.
• 0:47
  I don't see it. Fred, you here, right There he
• 0:49
  is. There he is.
• 0:50
  Wave your hand again, Fred, so everybody can see you.
• 0:52
  He's a tall brother so he can. He's got a tall reach, but
• 0:56
  really blessed us yesterday with a session on conversations.
• 1:01
  And basically it's about how do you start a conversation to talk
• 1:04
  about the gospel with someone, which is really important.
• 1:07
  A lot of people, I hear a lot of people always say, you know
• 1:10
  what, I'd love to go out and talk about the gospel.
• 1:11
  I'd love to talk about, you know, run the people, talk to
• 1:13
  people about the gospel. I just don't know how to start
• 1:16
  it. You know, how do you how do you
• 1:17
  get that conversation started so I don't feel awkward.
• 1:20
  And yesterday we got a lot of really good information on why
• 1:26
  we do it and a good bit of ideas about how to start those
• 1:32
  conversations and how to do a testimony.
• 1:34
  I mean, it's, it's one thing to just give your testimony, but
• 1:38
  it's another thing that it's given in a way where people are
• 1:41
  really impacted by. Sometimes you only have a few
• 1:44
  minutes to give a testimony. Sometimes you have pretty much
• 1:47
  all day. But how do you do it?
• 1:48
  How do you frame it? They did a really good job
• 1:51
  yesterday talking about those things.
• 1:53
  So the next time that comes, comes up, if you will, the next
• 1:58
  time that comes up, if our brother would be gracious enough
• 2:00
  to do it again. I would highly recommend that if
• 2:05
  you're able to get there to sign up and come to that.
• 2:07
  I think you, I think you really enjoy it and I think you'll get
• 2:10
  a lot from it. OK, OK, so let's pray and go
• 2:14
  into the Word of God. Amen.
• 2:19
  Father, once again, we are so gracious to be in your presence,
• 2:25
  and we know that we're in your presence because you said we're
• 2:28
  two or three gather in your name, that you'll be in the
• 2:33
  midst of us. There's a lot more than two or
• 2:36
  three people here today that's gathering in your name.
• 2:41
  So we thank you, Lord, for being among us, being with us, and
• 2:46
  even more important, those of us who are believers.
• 2:48
  We thank you for being in US. I pray, God, that you would
• 2:53
  speak words that would resonate with all of us today, that you
• 2:59
  would help us to understand your heart concerning these passages.
• 3:04
  Lord, open up our eyes and open our hearts in the seed that goes
• 3:12
  forth. I pray that You would plant it
• 3:16
  deep in our hearts that we won't forget what we hear, but that
• 3:24
  that seed would bring forth fruit and that fruit would be
• 3:29
  evident in our lives and that it would have impact on others who
• 3:34
  see our lives. Father, we love You and we so
• 3:41
  need and want to hear from You today.
• 3:46
  Holy Spirit, fill us afresh, give us wisdom, give us
• 3:53
  knowledge, cover us with your grace.
• 3:58
  In Jesus name we pray, Amen. So our, our, our passage today
• 4:06
  that we're going to focus on is going to be chapter 4 before we
• 4:10
  go there. We finished last week at verse
• 4:13
  17 and we got through just one or two of those of the items or
• 4:21
  the attributes of what would be considered godly wisdom.
• 4:28
  We talked about the worldly wisdom as being, you know, that
• 4:31
  which is self seeking and bitter envy.
• 4:35
  But now we're going to go into talking about in verse 17 he
• 4:39
  talks about, and this is 1st 17 of chapter 3.
• 4:43
  I'm sorry to make that clear. He talks about the attributes of
• 4:48
  what would be considered godly wisdom.
• 4:52
  And before I do that, I just want to mention because when you
• 4:55
  read James, and we talked about this a number of times, but when
• 4:58
  you read James, it's almost like you can come away feeling like
• 5:02
  you just got spanked. OK, let me speak for myself.
• 5:07
  When I read James, I come away feeling like I just got spanked,
• 5:11
  like I just got corrected. You know, I'm sure part, I'm
• 5:15
  sure a lot of that's true and it is true.
• 5:17
  I mean, definitely for myself, I had to do a lot of repent and
• 5:20
  reading James. But I want to say this, we
• 5:23
  started out, if you remember when we talked about chapter, we
• 5:26
  went back to chapter 1 and before we even started James, we
• 5:30
  went back to Exodus chapter 34 and we talked about the
• 5:34
  attributes of God, the way he introduced himself to Moses.
• 5:41
  And he used words like merciful, gracious, patient, forgiving,
• 5:53
  kindness and goodness. He used words like that to
• 5:57
  describe who he is. And I think that's important
• 6:02
  that we just remember that because as we go through these
• 6:05
  scriptures, and though it may sound like it's a, a, a, a, a
• 6:10
  strap or a belt coming to meet you to spank you, God is not
• 6:18
  standing. He's not this God that just sits
• 6:20
  in heaven on a throne and points down to all of us and say, yeah,
• 6:27
  I got you for that. I'ma get you.
• 6:29
  I'm judging you for this and I'm judging you for that's not who
• 6:33
  our God is. He is not an angry God who is
• 6:36
  just constantly looking for ways to condemn you or judge you.
• 6:42
  That is not who He is. That's not who He is.
• 6:46
  And sometimes even the world would try to describe him that
• 6:49
  way. But that's not who He is.
• 6:51
  He really isn't. He showed us who He is by
• 6:55
  sending His Son die for us. He loves us, so He gives us this
• 7:03
  truth, all of this truth between Genesis and Revelations.
• 7:07
  He gives us this truth to show us how much He loves us.
• 7:13
  This is truth in love because He's a loving God.
• 7:21
  So I want you to see Him that way and I want you to experience
• 7:25
  Him that way. So as he gives us these
• 7:29
  commandments or these instructions, and as he talks to
• 7:32
  us about things in our hearts, please no, it's not from a place
• 7:38
  of anger or condemnation, but it's a place of love.
• 7:42
  His heart breaks for us. He describes himself as being
• 7:50
  like a like a hen, a mother hen that covers her children, that
• 7:59
  covers her chicks. His word covers us.
• 8:05
  It's our protection, our direction.
• 8:08
  So I just want to put that out there first.
• 8:10
  So as we go through these things, please sense his love in
• 8:17
  this truth. So in verse 17, he says, but the
• 8:21
  wisdom of God, the wisdom that is from above is first pure.
• 8:27
  We talked about pure means without being tainted is without
• 8:30
  defilement. He said it's not only pure, but
• 8:34
  it's peace loving, peace loving. It's gentle.
• 8:41
  God's love is gentle. His wisdom is gentle.
• 8:45
  It's not harsh, it's not abrasive.
• 8:49
  It's not coming, coming about, you know, coming towards someone
• 8:52
  attacking or coming with brutal force.
• 8:57
  He's gentle, He's gentle as I was thinking about that word
• 9:02
  gentle. And you know, the Lord tells us,
• 9:05
  he said let your gentleness be known to all men.
• 9:08
  So we are to be gentle. And it's the way that we we
• 9:12
  relate to each other, particularly those who are in
• 9:14
  the House of faith. We relate to each other with a
• 9:17
  gentle spirit. Even when someone falls into
• 9:20
  sin, the Bible tells us in Galatians one that we restore
• 9:24
  such a one with a heart of meekness, gentleness.
• 9:29
  We don't come out of attacking, We don't come out and come
• 9:31
  deniming, pointing fingers. We come with a heart of
• 9:35
  meekness, gentleness. Now something came across my
• 9:41
  mind as I was looking at that word gentle and it was the some
• 9:44
  of you want to remember it. It's probably going to tell our
• 9:46
  age, but back in 1989, I know, I know as soon as I said that,
• 9:51
  there's a lot of people that say, OK, that's not me.
• 9:57
  Back in 1989, there was another commercial that Charles Barkley
• 10:00
  did and the commercial was about, it was Nike commercial.
• 10:06
  And this Nike commercial was about rebounding.
• 10:11
  And Charles was, you know, the, the, the pitcher was Charles
• 10:14
  rebounding the ball. I mean, throwing the ball up,
• 10:16
  rebounding at Duncan. I mean, all these aggressive,
• 10:19
  aggressive moves because Charles was trying to convey to
• 10:22
  everybody that, yeah, you got to be relentless.
• 10:25
  And Charles was a very good rebounder.
• 10:27
  He was on, he was, he was undersized.
• 10:29
  He was only 65. And he was rebounded against
• 10:31
  guys that were like 68697 foot. And he was a very, very good
• 10:36
  rebounder. But the commercial was a mockery
• 10:42
  of the scripture in Matthew 5. It was in Matthew 5 there was a
• 10:51
  scripture that says blessed are the meek or the gentle, for they
• 11:01
  shall inherit the world. And Charles said, well those who
• 11:12
  are meek may inherit the earth, but they won't get the rebound.
• 11:20
  Charles, you're wrong. The meek does inherit the earth
• 11:25
  and it rebounds all the blessings and all the favor of
• 11:31
  God because it's the commandment that tells us that it's the meat
• 11:39
  that won't inherit the earth. Then that's who will overcome.
• 11:45
  But it was a mockery. But he also goes on in the same
• 11:50
  verse. It says willing to yield.
• 11:53
  It's not about in other words, you know, being stubborn, even
• 11:56
  if you think you're being stubborn about, you know, the
• 11:58
  will of God or or something that is godly, not being able to to
• 12:04
  to yield. It's basically just can come
• 12:08
  some from from somewhere else in your heart.
• 12:10
  And it's just about being stubborn.
• 12:12
  But the Bible says be willing to yield.
• 12:14
  Be willing to yield to hear someone else's viewpoint, be
• 12:18
  willing to hear to hear someone else's ideas or strategies.
• 12:22
  And as long as it lines up with the word of God, it doesn't have
• 12:26
  to be my way, doesn't have to be your way, but to be willing to
• 12:30
  yield to these things. And then of course, over and in
• 12:34
  the next line it says have full of mercy and good fruits.
• 12:38
  Well, God tells us that we are to be merciful, are to be
• 12:43
  merciful. And again, you know, he, I
• 12:45
  believe that James gets a lot of these things from the Sermon on
• 12:48
  the Mount because the Bible says that it's the merciful, you
• 12:52
  know, that will obtain mercy. Those who are merciful will
• 12:55
  obtain mercy. So here he says the spirit or
• 12:59
  the wisdom of God is to be full of mercy and good fruits.
• 13:04
  And and that's true because it's wise to be merciful because
• 13:09
  that's the heart of God. It's for us to be merciful.
• 13:12
  And I think I said last week that there is no time that we
• 13:16
  are more like Christ than when we are merciful because he is so
• 13:21
  merciful. He is so merciful when he shows
• 13:25
  it all the time. And then the next one, he says
• 13:29
  without partiality. Well, James talked about that
• 13:32
  back in chapter 2. He talks about that we should
• 13:35
  do, we should have our ministry or, or the ministry of the Lord,
• 13:39
  our faith in the Lord without partiality, without showing
• 13:43
  favoritism to anybody, to one versus the other, but to love.
• 13:49
  And then also says without hypocrisy, that means without
• 13:52
  pretense, without pretending to be somebody else, without
• 13:57
  pretending to be something else, but to be genuine in our faith,
• 14:02
  to be genuine in our walk with Jesus.
• 14:06
  Sometimes people can have pretense where they are one way
• 14:10
  in front of one crowd of people, but then when they come to the
• 14:13
  church family, they're another way and either one don't
• 14:17
  recognize the other sometime because it's pretense.
• 14:22
  And he says we should, we should be without hypocrisy.
• 14:26
  And then verse 18 says that now the fruit of righteousness is
• 14:30
  sown in peace by those who make peace.
• 14:33
  And again, now someone's really upset.
• 14:39
  And again in the in the sermon on the mound, Matthew 5 and 9,
• 14:45
  he says that it's the peacemakers that blessed are the
• 14:48
  peacemakers for they are the children of God, the
• 14:53
  peacemakers, those who make peace.
• 14:57
  And it's almost like in this particular verse here is almost
• 14:59
  like a picture of one who is sowing seeds of peace.
• 15:04
  Wherever they go, they're sowing seeds of peace.
• 15:08
  It's not creating confusion, it's not creating a conflict.
• 15:13
  It's not creating fights. It's showing sowing seeds of
• 15:19
  peace wherever we go, wherever we go.
• 15:22
  And we talked last week that we're not talking about peace at
• 15:25
  any cost when I tell my peace that any cause, in other words,
• 15:29
  we're not going to cover up sin. We're not going to cover up
• 15:32
  unrighteousness. We're not going to, you know,
• 15:34
  we're not going to put things under the carpet in order to try
• 15:38
  to have peace. That's not godly peace.
• 15:42
  That's not godly peace. We desire purity and holiness
• 15:49
  over fake peace. So we sow peace wherever we go.
• 15:57
  So now we come here to verse to chapter 4 and verse one.
• 16:03
  And he says here, where do wars come from?
• 16:08
  Where do wars and fights come from among you?
• 16:12
  Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war
• 16:18
  and your members? So he's saying that when we have
• 16:25
  these fights, where do these fights in the church come from?
• 16:33
  Something to think about. When we have fights in the
• 16:35
  church, where does that come from?
• 16:39
  Why are people fighting in the church?
• 16:41
  People fighting bars, people fight on street corners, people
• 16:47
  fight in the world. But in church, these fights
• 16:52
  coming from, and James says they're coming from that place
• 16:57
  in your heart that desires pleasure, that place in your
• 17:04
  heart that's warring against the Holy Spirit.
• 17:11
  So that's like our natural man, our sinful man in our hearts is
• 17:17
  warring against the Holy Spirit. I want what I want.
• 17:23
  I mean that isn't that what envious, envious.
• 17:25
  I want that and selfish ambition says I will do whatever it takes
• 17:30
  to get that. So these fights that is first
• 17:37
  start in our hearts begin to spill out and we now fight with
• 17:42
  other people. And James is saying when we have
• 17:47
  this selfish ambition in our hearts or we have this envy in
• 17:52
  our hearts, that's where wars come from in the church.
• 17:58
  People who don't want to yield, not willing to yield, people who
• 18:02
  are not full of mercy, A heart that's not full of mercy, a
• 18:06
  heart that's not full of good fruits, a heart that's not
• 18:10
  gentle, a heart that's not peaceable, a heart that's not
• 18:14
  pure. That's where these fights come
• 18:17
  from, these arguments and these conflicts.
• 18:22
  He, he mentions the word pleasures here.
• 18:24
  And these pleasures mean selfish, worldly desires and
• 18:27
  gratification that cause conflict that are contrary to
• 18:31
  God's will. So you see our our fights in the
• 18:35
  church or even the fights in our families, those fights are less
• 18:40
  about the issues that we agree or disagree with and it's more
• 18:44
  about what's going on in their hearts.
• 18:48
  It's more about that operating in the flesh and not in the
• 18:52
  spirit. It's our it's, it's being
• 18:54
  carnal. It's being carnal and it's
• 18:58
  dealing with someone else out of a heart of carnality as opposed
• 19:02
  to by the Spirit of God. If I have a disagreement with
• 19:07
  you, we're both believers. Should we not be able to, with
• 19:11
  love, sit down and talk this thing out?
• 19:14
  Can I not share my heart with you?
• 19:16
  And can we not disagree on, on, on, on on the direction that we
• 19:21
  may be going or the way that we may want to do this?
• 19:24
  But but what? Shouldn't we be about the same
• 19:27
  thing? And that is pleasing God, and
• 19:30
  that is being true to the word of God.
• 19:32
  Shouldn't we be about the same thing?
• 19:34
  And if that's true, then fights should not divide us.
• 19:40
  If that's true, fights should not divide us.
• 19:43
  But if I am so, if I'm so dug in about just having it my way, my
• 19:51
  selfish ambition, just having it my way, and you not getting your
• 19:56
  way because of my envy towards you, then that's when things
• 20:02
  blow up into a fight. A discussion now becomes a
• 20:06
  fight. And fights eventually will
• 20:10
  divide because one person got people they want to run to and
• 20:15
  get on their side, The other person got somebody they want to
• 20:17
  run to and get on their side. Now you got splits, James said
• 20:22
  That should not be going on. That should not be happening, He
• 20:27
  said. You lust.
• 20:29
  And you do not have you murder and you covet and cannot obtain.
• 20:37
  Now, even in the earlier churches they had fights, they
• 20:41
  had bickering. And even in the early churches,
• 20:45
  there's a number of different examples, you know, not only in
• 20:48
  Corinthians, but also in Galatians and Philip
• 20:52
  Philippians, there's examples of conflict, people having
• 20:56
  conflict. But I just want to read this
• 20:58
  scripture from First Corinthians chapter 3 and verse 3.
• 21:01
  It says for you are still carnal, for where there are
• 21:08
  envy, strife and divisions among you, are you not carnal and
• 21:15
  behaving like mere men? And what that mere men means
• 21:20
  like the natural man, the man who's operating out of his flesh
• 21:26
  as opposed to operating out of the spirit, mere man.
• 21:30
  We're supposed to be spirit filled believers and in doing
• 21:34
  that, that allows us to be able to speak and to act with the
• 21:42
  heart and the mind of Christ. And then I want to read for you
• 21:49
  second Timothy. I'm going to start at verse 22
• 21:56
  verse. This is verse 2 verse start.
• 21:58
  I'm sorry, chapter 2, verse 22, it says flee also youthful us,
• 22:03
  but pursue righteousness, faith, love, and what peace with those
• 22:09
  who are who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
• 22:15
  And then it says, but avoid foolish and ignorant disputes,
• 22:18
  knowing that they generate strife.
• 22:22
  And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel, but be gentle, be
• 22:27
  gentle, able to teach patient. So Paul, so James is in
• 22:35
  agreement with Paul that the characteristics of someone who
• 22:39
  is walking in the Spirit should be different than someone who's
• 22:44
  walking in their flesh. See, this is a result of walking
• 22:47
  in the flesh. When we have these disputes and
• 22:49
  these fights and these wars in the church, it means the heart
• 22:55
  is not right. Galatians tells us that there's
• 22:58
  a difference between those who are walking in the Spirit and
• 23:01
  those who are walking in the flesh and Galatians.
• 23:04
  Chapter 5 starting there at verse 19, he says Now the works
• 23:10
  of the flesh are evident, which are adultery, fornication,
• 23:14
  uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions,
• 23:18
  jealousies, outbursts of wrath and selfish ambitions.
• 23:25
  While that's of the flesh dissensions, heresies, envy,
• 23:30
  murders, which we're going to talk about in a minute.
• 23:33
  He's going to mention that in a minute.
• 23:34
  Drunkenness, revelries and the like of which I tell you
• 23:38
  beforehand, just as I told you in time past that those who
• 23:42
  practice such things will not inherit the Kingdom of God.
• 23:47
  So that's why when we walk and when I'm, when I'm walking in
• 23:50
  any of those things, that means I'm walking in my flesh when I'm
• 23:55
  being selfish, when I'm having these outbursts of wrath out of
• 24:00
  frustration, when I'm, if I'm causing dissensions, if I'm, if
• 24:06
  I'm, if I'm speaking heresies from the word of God, I'm not
• 24:10
  walking in the spirit, but I'm walking in my flesh.
• 24:18
  I'm doing what pleases me, not what pleases God.
• 24:23
  But he also says that the fruit of the Spirit, now listen to the
• 24:29
  attributes of the food of the Spirit.
• 24:30
  I know one of you, most of you can probably recite these, but
• 24:34
  it's love, it's joy. So instead of anger and hatred,
• 24:40
  it's love. And it's joy.
• 24:43
  Instead of conflict, he says peace.
• 24:47
  Instead of not having patience, he says it's long-suffering or
• 24:52
  patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and
• 24:57
  self-control. Those are the attributes or the
• 25:00
  the the fruit of the spirit. When we approach a situation in
• 25:06
  the church and we are coming from that direction, our hearts
• 25:11
  are filled with those things as opposed to the heresies and the
• 25:15
  hatred. Then we know we're walking in
• 25:17
  the spirit and we have to be able to hear that about
• 25:23
  ourselves and to to sense that about ourselves or to love
• 25:27
  someone enough to share it, to love someone enough to share it.
• 25:37
  And we have to love each other enough to be honest with each
• 25:39
  other and say, you know her brother, you know, to me it
• 25:42
  seems like you kind of walking in your flesh a little bit.
• 25:48
  Let's pray, let's pray, let's ask God to help us with this.
• 25:57
  So he goes on in here, any, any, any goes on to verse.
• 26:01
  He goes on to the bottom of verse 2 and he says, yet you do
• 26:07
  not have because you do not ask. So we're selfish and we you
• 26:13
  know, and we're acting out of selfish ambition and we're
• 26:17
  coveting and we want these things that we want for
• 26:21
  ourselves and we want them out of our, you know, to to satisfy
• 26:25
  our own pleasures. He says you, you know, you war
• 26:28
  and you fight for these things, but you do not have them.
• 26:33
  He said, because you do not ask. That was interesting.
• 26:37
  You know, now, now, so, so, so James is saying, so even like my
• 26:41
  pleasures and the things that I'm looking for, the things that
• 26:46
  I really desire, my desires. You mean I can have those things
• 26:50
  if I ask, as long as those desires line up with the word of
• 26:56
  God and the will of God. Yes, he will provide it.
• 27:00
  He says anything you ask in my name.
• 27:03
  And then he says also that when you pray according to my will,
• 27:09
  you will have those things. So the question is if are you
• 27:16
  praying first of all, And that's what he's dealing with here.
• 27:19
  He's now dealing with prayer. So then he goes to verse 3 and
• 27:23
  he says you do not ask. I mean you, you ask and you do
• 27:27
  and and you do not receive because you ask amiss.
• 27:30
  So the bottom of verse 2 says you know you, you murder and you
• 27:35
  covet and that murder means hatred.
• 27:36
  By the way, guys, it means hatred, a very intense hatred.
• 27:41
  And you covet and you cannot obtain.
• 27:44
  That means you can't get satisfaction.
• 27:45
  You're not being satisfied. No matter how much you covet, no
• 27:49
  matter how much you lust for what someone else has, you still
• 27:53
  can't get satisfaction from it because lust is never satisfied.
• 27:59
  Lust is insatiable. No matter how much you lust, you
• 28:04
  will never come to the point of being satisfied because once you
• 28:08
  attain that, then you'll want something else.
• 28:12
  It's never enough. You ask for a job, you say, I'll
• 28:15
  be, you know, if I could just have a job making $100,000, you
• 28:19
  get a job making $100,000. If I could just have a job
• 28:21
  making $200,000, I'll be happy. I have everything I need.
• 28:26
  You get a job making 200,000, now I need $250,000.
• 28:30
  You're always going to be wanting more.
• 28:34
  And I'm sorry to say this because I love, you know how you
• 28:37
  guys know I love basketball, I love sports in general.
• 28:39
  Be honest with you. I just think that they there's a
• 28:41
  lot of good things about sports, but there's also some bad things
• 28:45
  about sports. And when I'm talking about
• 28:48
  lusting and never really being able to be fulfilled by the
• 28:52
  things that we lust for, by the pleasures of the world will
• 28:55
  never be fulfilled with those things.
• 28:57
  Just recently, and many of you probably heard about it, but
• 29:01
  there's a couple of a couple of people closely associated with
• 29:05
  the NBA, the National Basketball Association closely associated
• 29:09
  one as a coach and one as a player.
• 29:11
  And they just recently were have federal indictments against
• 29:18
  them. They're being charged federally
• 29:20
  for illegal betting, illegal gambling.
• 29:26
  Now you would say, wait a minute, basketball players,
• 29:29
  coaches, they make millions. Why would they need to get
• 29:35
  involved in illegal gambling? Because enough is never enough.
• 29:40
  When you lost, it's never enough.
• 29:43
  When you're looking for worldly pleasures, it's never enough.
• 29:50
  It's never enough and it always leads to sin.
• 29:59
  James even told us that over in chapter one, verse 15.
• 30:05
  He says then when desire or your pleasures, your desire for
• 30:10
  pleasures, when it conceives, it brings forth sin and sin when it
• 30:18
  is full grown or when it's complete, it brings forth death.
• 30:24
  And that death may not necessarily mean a physical
• 30:26
  death. It may mean a death of your own
• 30:29
  spirit or soul, the death of someone's career, the death of
• 30:36
  someone's marriage, the death of a lot of different things.
• 30:43
  It brings forth death because sin is always present with it.
• 30:48
  That's why he says here back in chapter 3 when he said that
• 30:53
  bitter envy and self seeking in your hearts.
• 30:56
  He said those things will bring forth confusion.
• 30:59
  Not only just confusion, but also every evil thing.
• 31:04
  So here in verse three, he says you ask and you do not receive
• 31:08
  because you ask a misk. So you don't pray.
• 31:13
  First of all, you're not praying and you're not asking God to
• 31:16
  give you the things that you need, but you're trying to get
• 31:19
  them yourself to fulfill your own lust.
• 31:23
  And you're not really praying and asking God and trusting Him
• 31:27
  to provide for you. We're not.
• 31:29
  We're not doing that, but instead we want what we want and
• 31:34
  we want to get it our way. And it says here that first of
• 31:39
  all, it says you don't pray, you don't ask God.
• 31:42
  But then when you do pray, you pray out of your selfish motive.
• 31:46
  You pray to spend it on your own pleasures.
• 31:52
  You ask and do not receive because you ask amiss wrong
• 31:56
  motives, that you may spend it on your pleasures, on your
• 32:00
  lusts, on the things that you desire.
• 32:05
  You know prayer. Prayer should not be about
• 32:11
  wanting God to serve us. And that's exactly what it is
• 32:16
  sometimes. And we just want to start
• 32:18
  praying and just put out a bunch of requests.
• 32:20
  This that this, that another thing.
• 32:21
  And a lot of those things are really things that just satisfy
• 32:25
  us. And we want God to be a Co
• 32:27
  conspirator. We want to pray for something
• 32:32
  out of our lusts, out of our desires, out of our wants, and
• 32:40
  then we want God to provide it. There's a real simple
• 32:46
  illustration of that in the Bible over in Luke.
• 32:50
  Over in Luke, it's a story about Jesus and the disciples going
• 32:55
  through Samaria and the Samaritans.
• 32:58
  They didn't want Jesus to go through there.
• 33:00
  And they told him, no, we don't want you to come through here.
• 33:02
  And James and John got upset. They got frustrating.
• 33:07
  They had this outburst of anger and they say, Jesus, Lord, you
• 33:11
  want us to just call down fire and burn them up.
• 33:17
  And of course what Jesus said was no, you don't know what
• 33:20
  spirit you're of. But when you think about what
• 33:25
  they were asking, I'm angry, I'm upset, I'm frustrated, and I
• 33:33
  want you to destroy these people because I want them gone.
• 33:41
  I want something done about them.
• 33:44
  Jesus. You want God to be a Co
• 33:46
  conspirator in that out of your frustration.
• 33:50
  And we do the same thing though. We do the same thing.
• 33:53
  We pray for our own desires, our own pleasures, to spend them on
• 34:00
  our own pleasures. What do we pray for?
• 34:04
  You know, prayer is such a privilege.
• 34:07
  It's such a privilege to be able to pray and know that God hears
• 34:11
  us. And he promises that he does
• 34:12
  hear us because he says his ears are always open to our prayers.
• 34:18
  It's what the righteous, the righteous, His ears are always
• 34:21
  open to the righteous. So he know we know that he hears
• 34:26
  us. So it's such a privilege and
• 34:28
  such a power to have prayer at our that we can have access to
• 34:37
  such a power to have that. But how do we use that power?
• 34:41
  Do we pray for each other? Do we pray for our country?
• 34:45
  Do we pray for our leaders? Do we pray for our children?
• 34:49
  Do we pray for people that we're not getting along with?
• 34:54
  Do we pray for them? Do we pray for God's will, His
• 34:58
  absolute will in our life? Do we pray for that or do we
• 35:04
  just ask him to do the things that we want him to do?
• 35:11
  Do we repent for our sins in our in our time of prayer?
• 35:16
  Do we repent for the sins of the nation as some of the old
• 35:22
  prophets used to do? But James says that every good
• 35:26
  gift comes from above. So that's why we pray and we ask
• 35:28
  God because we want his good gifts.
• 35:32
  And sometimes the things that we ask him for, even though we may
• 35:35
  want him, doesn't necessarily mean that it's a good thing.
• 35:38
  And because of God's foreknowledge, because God knows
• 35:42
  everything about everything, He knows what's good for us and
• 35:48
  what's not. So the question then becomes, do
• 35:50
  we trust him enough that when we do pray and ask for these
• 35:53
  things, do we trust him enough? And do we believe on him enough
• 35:59
  that if he's denies us those things, can we trust him enough
• 36:05
  to believe that it's for our good to say, Dad, you know best,
• 36:12
  Father, you know best, you know what's best for me and can we
• 36:16
  accept it? You don't have to acknowledge
• 36:21
  it, but how many times has someone in here prayed for a
• 36:26
  relationship that you wanted to have continued but God said no,
• 36:31
  it's done, you ain't got to wait.
• 36:34
  Don't put your hands up. Don't put your hands up someone
• 36:40
  that you just couldn't live without in your life and you
• 36:44
  pray God, please give me this relationship.
• 36:48
  Meanwhile, it was the worst thing possible for you and God
• 36:53
  knew it. Even when we didn't.
• 36:59
  And that's just one example of ways that we want what we want,
• 37:04
  but we need to trust God that what he gives us is going to be
• 37:08
  the best for us. And then in verse 4, adulterers
• 37:11
  and adulteresses and he and he, he's basically saying, you know,
• 37:15
  those of you who are spiritually unfaithful, he used to use that
• 37:21
  word adulteresses or, or, or adulterers to refer to Israel
• 37:26
  back in the time when they were, you know, going after other gods
• 37:29
  and going after idols and, and doing the things that the
• 37:33
  nations were doing. God would say, you committing
• 37:36
  adultery, you're playing to harlot.
• 37:39
  We are to be married to him. We're married to Christ.
• 37:42
  We are Christ's bride and when we begin to go after worldly
• 37:47
  things world and have worldly idols go after worldly gods, he
• 37:53
  says it's being a it's, it's Daughtry.
• 37:58
  It's a it's Daughtry. And he feels that that's the
• 38:02
  that's the sensitivity of God to feel like that betrayal, to feel
• 38:07
  that betrayal of us going after a God who provides everything
• 38:12
  for us, that's done everything for us.
• 38:16
  And then we go after worldly things.
• 38:20
  And he even takes us a step further.
• 38:21
  He says, do you not know that friendship with the world is
• 38:24
  enmity, meaning hostility? I'll will with God.
• 38:29
  Do we not understand that, that when we go after or want to be
• 38:33
  friends with the world now, friends, we're not talking about
• 38:38
  just knowing somebody. Remember, friendship is someone
• 38:43
  who had we share values, we have an understanding, we have the
• 38:47
  same interests and all those things.
• 38:51
  That's friendship. Acquaintances is I know who you
• 38:57
  are. And every now and then we may be
• 39:00
  in contact with each other. We may come across each other,
• 39:03
  we may see each other out in the streets somewhere, and we
• 39:05
  acknowledge each other when we see each other.
• 39:09
  I know you, but that's acquaintance, he says.
• 39:13
  If you're a friend, that means you're sharing values and you're
• 39:18
  sharing desires of the world, then you're an enemy against
• 39:21
  God. We can't serve 2 masters.
• 39:27
  We can't serve the world and God too.
• 39:30
  You can't do it, he says. We either love the one and hate
• 39:35
  the other, or we hold to the one and despise the other.
• 39:38
  But we cannot serve God and Mammon.
• 39:42
  We can't serve God and the world and the riches of the world.
• 39:49
  We can't, we can't do that. God said.
• 39:50
  That's not what we are called to do.
• 39:54
  So he said if you're friends with the world, then you're
• 39:58
  you're hostile against me when you're friends with the world.
• 40:03
  And then he goes on here. He says whoever therefore wants
• 40:07
  to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
• 40:11
  We make ourselves an enemy of God.
• 40:15
  God doesn't call us an enemy of who he is, but we make ourselves
• 40:20
  an enemy of God first. John over in chapter first, John
• 40:31
  chapter 2 talked about the fact that, you know, he says love not
• 40:35
  the world nor the things that are in the world, because all
• 40:39
  that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes
• 40:42
  and the pride of life. Those things are not of the
• 40:44
  Father, but they are of the world.
• 40:47
  And we talked about last week how the world is passing away.
• 40:49
  Those things are going to be gone.
• 40:51
  It's only the things of God that lasts forever.
• 40:56
  He says, My word will last forever, heaven and earth shall
• 41:00
  pass away, but my word shall stand forever. 5 Or do you think
• 41:08
  that the Scripture says in vain the Spirit who dwells in US
• 41:12
  yearns jealousy, yearns jealousy, longs for jealousy.
• 41:20
  In other words, what he's saying here in the Spirit dwells in
• 41:23
  you. That means the Holy Spirit.
• 41:25
  God said I put his heart, put a Holy Spirit in you, my spirit, I
• 41:29
  put my spirit in you. And when you give your love,
• 41:33
  your affection, your obedience to your flesh as opposed to the
• 41:41
  Holy Spirit that I put in you, I'm jealous.
• 41:46
  I'm jealous because I want that affection to be towards me.
• 41:50
  I want that love to be towards me.
• 41:51
  I want that obedience to be towards me, not this flesh that
• 41:55
  eventually is going to ruin you. And he's saying, he's saying to
• 42:02
  us that yes, he actually gets jealous.
• 42:04
  We've heard that before, the scriptures that, you know, he
• 42:07
  talks about being jealous. We've heard those scriptures
• 42:10
  before. And in Exodus 20 and five, you
• 42:13
  shall not bow down to them, meaning, you know, other gods or
• 42:18
  idols, nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a
• 42:22
  jealous God. And then in Exodus 34 and 14, he
• 42:26
  said, you shall worship no other God.
• 42:29
  For the Lord whose name is jealous is a jealous God.
• 42:33
  Deuteronomy 4 and 24. For the Lord your God is a
• 42:37
  consuming fire, a jealous God. Praise and worship team.
• 42:41
  You can come forth, please. He's a jealous God.
• 42:45
  So we know that he's a jealous God and the Spirit that's in US,
• 42:49
  God said we yearn for you to, or we long for you to show your
• 42:57
  affection and give you love and affection, obedience to the
• 43:00
  Spirit that's in you, the Holy Spirit that's in you, and not
• 43:04
  the Spirit that is of the flesh. But the good thing is that God
• 43:11
  has more grace. He gives us more grace that even
• 43:15
  when we have done these things, even when we have allowed
• 43:18
  ourselves to allow our flesh to have dominance over us over the
• 43:24
  things that we think, things that we do.
• 43:27
  Even when we do that, when we humble ourselves and we turn to
• 43:32
  the Lord, His grace is there for us to cover us.
• 43:38
  His grace is there to say, come on back home.
• 43:43
  Our humility to admit and confess and repent allows us to
• 43:51
  be restored to the fellowship of God.
• 43:54
  He never walks away or leaves us.
• 43:56
  I thank God that His grace is always there because from time
• 43:59
  to time we all will go back and do things out of our flesh.
• 44:05
  We all do it and then we acknowledge it and confess it
• 44:08
  before God and He forgives us. How wonderful it is to serve a
• 44:13
  God that loves us. He's not looking for our ruin.
• 44:19
  He's not looking to destroy us. He's looking to build us up.
• 44:24
  He's looking to love us. He's looking to cause us to be
• 44:28
  overcomers of the things that will destroy us.
• 44:31
  He wants to protect us. That's why he gives us His word.
• 44:35
  He wants to protect us. And of course, we all know this
• 44:39
  scripture, right? God resists the proud but gives
• 44:43
  grace to the humble. I'm so glad that we don't have
• 44:48
  to worry about running from him. We can run to him in those times
• 44:55
  when we feel or when we know that we have blown it, we can
• 45:02
  run to him. We don't have to ever feel that
• 45:06
  reproach and that shame that's so deep and the enemy will try
• 45:11
  to make it. It's so bad to make you feel
• 45:14
  that you would be. You should be ashamed to even go
• 45:16
  to God. You should be ashamed to even
• 45:18
  pray. You should be ashamed to even
• 45:20
  talk to him or even look towards heaven.
• 45:22
  The enemy would want to do that to you.
• 45:26
  But God is saying no, come to me, I love you.
• 45:31
  I love you. In fact, I loved you so much I
• 45:35
  sent my son to die for you, to take what was meant for you.
• 45:42
  I loved you that much. I pray that as we go into a
• 45:53
  communion, I pray that our sensitivity to the Spirit would
• 46:02
  be so that we know when we are beginning to move in our flesh
• 46:09
  and walk outside of the will of God.
• 46:13
  The way I talk to my wife, the way I talk to my children, the
• 46:18
  way I talk to family members or community people or friends or
• 46:23
  my church brothers and sisters, the way I talk to them.
• 46:28
  What's in my heart? What's in my heart?
• 46:34
  If I get to a point where I can't have agreement with you,
• 46:37
  does that mean that I have to slander you?
• 46:42
  Does that mean that I have to gossip?
• 46:44
  Does that mean that I have to destroy your reputation and your
• 46:48
  character because we don't see things eye to eye?
• 46:53
  No, no, I want the Holy Spirit to be in us so much that we will
• 47:03
  come to a point when, when we sense these things, instead of
• 47:08
  running from God, we run to Him and repent.
• 47:14
  Jesus came and died for that Father.
• 47:21
  We thank you for your word. We thank you that sometimes
• 47:25
  these truths can be hard, but yet they sanctify us.
• 47:29
  They purify us. They mowed us.
• 47:34
  Helps to scrape off the things that are contrary to your divine
• 47:39
  nature. We want to please you and what
• 47:43
  we do. We're so grateful for your grace
• 47:48
  and your mercy that you extend to us even when we don't deserve
• 47:53
  it. And usually we don't.
• 47:55
  None of us do. But yet you bless us by giving
• 48:02
  us more grace and more mercy. I thank you for the sacrifice
• 48:10
  that you sent through your Son Jesus Christ, that we would even
• 48:16
  have the Holy Spirit in us, that we can obey the Holy Spirit and
• 48:22
  do what pleases you. In the night in which Jesus was
• 48:28
  betrayed, he took the bread, and after he gave thanks He broke
• 48:35
  it. And he said, Take and eat.
• 48:37
  This is my body which is broken for you.
• 48:41
  Eat this in remembrance of me. In the same manner He also took
• 48:51
  the cup, and after supper he said, This cup is a new covenant
• 49:00
  in my blood, which was shed for the forgiveness of sins for
• 49:06
  many. That's all of us, and also those
• 49:11
  who are to come. It was shed for theirs too.
• 49:15
  Drink this and as often as you drink it, drinking in
• 49:19
  remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this
• 49:25
  bread and drink this cup, we do show His death until he come.
• 49:30
  Amen.