World War II had ended. On September 2, 1945 General Douglas MacArthur spoke to the world from the Battleship Missouri anchored in Tokyo Bay, “Today the guns are silent...the skies no longer rain death...the seas bear only commerce...men everywhere walk upright in the sunlight. The entire world is quietly at peace....”
That long war cost sixty million lives, and an estimated $1 trillion. It came only one generation after what President Woodrow Wilson called “the war to end all wars.”
Since World War II - Korea - Viet Nam, Iraq twice, not to speak of limited wars, political assassinations, personal revolts, rebellions and social revolutions.
1 What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you?
In the over 3100 years of recorded world history, the world has only been at peace 8% of the time or a total of 286 years, and over 8000 treaties have been made and broken. During this period there have been 14,531 wars, large and small, in which 3,640,000,000 people have been killed.
Years ago, a large statue of Christ was erected high in the Andes on the border between Argentina and Chile – called “Christ of the Andes.”
It symbolized a pledge between the two countries. As long as the statue stands, there will be peace between Chile and Argentina. Shortly after the statue was erected, the Chileans began to protest that they had been slighted, because the statue has its back turned to Chile.
Just when tempers were at their highest, a Chilean newspaper writer saved the day.
In an editorial he simply wrote, “The statue of Christ faces Argentina because, “The people of Argentina need more watching over than the people of Chile.”
The Wrong Fight
CONFLICT WITH OTHERS: Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members? 2 You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel.
Christians are engaged in a very real warfare. We are fighting against God’s enemy, Satan. And we are fighting for the souls of people. Satan is our adversary, and he will use any strategy necessary in order to win. One such strategy he often uses is to incite the children of God to war with one another. It’s hard to win the war abroad when there is civil war at home.
French novelist/playwright Alexandre Dumas once had a heated quarrel with a young politician. The argument became so intense that a duel was inevitable. Since both men were superb shots they decided to draw lots, the loser agreeing to shoot himself. Dumas lost.
Pistol in hand, he withdrew in silent dignity to another room, closing the door behind him. The rest of the company waited in gloomy suspense for the shot that would end his career.
It rang out at last. His friends ran to the door, opened it, and found Dumas, smoking revolver in hand. "Gentlemen, a most regrettable thing has happened," he announced. "I missed."
When we are fighting with one another, it should be a red flag that something has gone wrong.
What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? James says that our desires lead to conflict with others. The source lies within us. Our desires put us at odds with one another.
He tells us that we quarrel and fight, even kill and covet.
FRUSTATION WITH LIFE: You do not have because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.
1. Our motives are self indulgent in nature. We want things. We want to have — to possess. In our
desire to possess, we want to take. We want to get it ourselves.
2. There is a certain self-sufficiency about our efforts. We don’t want to depend on God.
We don’t want to ask him for what we need.
3. And when we finally do ask him, we don’t receive what we want because our motives are so
selfish. We want what we want simply for our own pleasures.
a. Spend/consume…lit means to ‘squander’
Fifteen years ago the dominant value among college freshmen was “finding a meaningful philosophy of life.” Today that value has dropped to number eight on the list.
Predictably, “being well off financially” has soared to the top of the list of 70 percent of all freshmen.
What these college freshmen are likely unaware of is the hidden cost of trying to “have it all.” Pollster Lou Harris tells us that 86 percent of the American public is chronically stressed out and 68 percent of that group is stressed out and doing nothing about it
“You can have it all” is not only Michelob’s light beer commercial, it has become the battle cry of an entire generation. Madison Avenue has been remarkably effective in seducing us to “Move on up,” “Grab the gusto,” and “Have it our way.”
In her show, Lily Tomlin has one of her characters say, “If I had known what it was like to have it all, I would have settled for less.”
HOSTILITY WITH GOD: 4 You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
1. James tells us we have become God’s enemy because our priorities are wrong.
We have chosen friendship with the world over friendship with God.
a. Our friendship leads to an affair with the world.
Mark Twain was lecturing in Utah and got into a debate with a morman over polygamy. The Morman angrily said, ‘Show me one place in the Bible where it says polygamy is wrong”!. Mark Twain responded, ‘Jesus said no man can serve two masters’.
Penalty for polygamy is more than one mother in law.
2. Our first priority should be following God. Our lifestyle is simply a reflection of our priorities.
Priorities are those things that are important to us. If God is important to us, we will live for him.
If material things are important to us, we will seek to get all of them we can.
The word “makes” means to assign. So James tells us once we befriend the world we assign ourselves as enemies of God. NOT indifferent acquaintances. You assign yourself, you tell God by your actions that you and He are enemies.
5 Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose: "He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us"?
An anonymous theologian wrote these wise words: “God is great, and therefore He will be sought: He is good, and therefore He will be found.”
If your life revolves around your own selfish desires, your own self image, your own needs, and your own prideful self-sufficiency, you will always be fighting the wrong fight and your life will be one of conflict. You will be at odds with people and with God. Don’t fight the wrong fight.
The Right Fight
The real battle is with our own selfish desires and sinful pride. James himself is quoting from the Scripture (Proverbs 3:34) when he says 6 But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, "GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE."
A New England pastor and a rabbi were having a conversation one day over lunch. The N.E. pastor proudly proclaimed, “One of my ancestors signed the Declaration of Independence”.
He thought that the rabbi would be very impressed by this. To his chagrin, the rabbi responded, “I understand your pride. One of my ancestors signed the Ten Commandments.”
The need is for humility. Verse 10: Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.
1. We have a choice to go on in selfish pride or we can choose to humble ourselves.
2. Humility has been misunderstood in today’s culture. We pride ourselves on self-sufficiency.
We think that humility equals passivity or even humiliation.
Humility is a heart attitude of dependence upon God. Understanding who we are and are not.
James gives us four things we must do.
Accept God’s will. 7 Submit therefore to God.
1. We are to acknowledging that his way is right but more than that. It is giving him control of your
life. Quit trying to run your own life. Put God in charge of your life by obeying him.
2. One of the reasons why we have so much conflict is because we have not settled our own
relationship with God. We have not really decided to submit to Him.
You can’t follow Jesus without obeying him! Jesus is not the Lord of your life if you do not do
what he says.
And if you are still trying to run your own life, you will be a miserable, unhappy, frustrated, and
angry person. There is no real peace if you do not submit to God.
The story is told of a famous rabbi who was walking with some of his disciples when one of them asked, "Rabbi, when should a man repent?"
The rabbi replied, "You should be sure you repent on the last day of your life."
"But, we can never be sure which day will be the last day of our life."
The rabbi smiled and said, "The answer to that problem is very simple. Repent now."
Reject God’s enemy. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
1. Resist his philosophy of life. Resisting what he wants you to do. Resist living by his standards.
2. Be on your guard. The devil is trying to destroy you. He is not trying to help you but hurt you.
Most Christians don’t recognize the devil. They’re looking for some guy in a red suit with horns and a tail. He shows up in ways that you don’t expect. When you are tempted to substitute other things for God or substitute other activities for giving yourself to God. When he shows up like this — resist him! Don’t give in. If you won’t give in, he will flee from you.
Pursue God’s presence. 8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.
A.W. Tozer summed up what we are talking about today with these words, “God’s presence is more than a doctrine to be held; it is a life to be enjoyed every moment of every day.”
1. It is not enough to accept God’s will and reject God’s enemy.
You must actively pursue a living relationship with the living Lord.
a. You must focus on those things that build or strengthen your relationship with Christ
— things like prayer, Bible reading, fellowship, worship, giving and serving.
They seem so elementary but when we feel that we have moved beyond them, we make a very serious mistake. Like a golfer getting away from the fundamentals of his golf swing, or a baseball player getting away from the fundamentals of hitting the ball or fielding.
When we get away from the fundamentals, our relationship begins to deteriorate.
Receive God’s forgiveness. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Be miserable and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.
The key to receiving God’s forgiveness is to turn from sin and repent of it.
Sorrow leads to true repentance which is not the sorrow that comes from getting caught in our sin and doesn’t change the way they live. Godly sorrow will cause us to come to God for forgiveness.
This is where humility comes in. It is humbling to ask for forgiveness. Just thing of how much conflict could be avoided if we were to say, "I was wrong, please forgive me."
Conflict in your life? What is causing it? Pride? Selfish desire? Demanding your rights?
Quarreling and fighting with people over things that do not really make any eternal difference?
If you are, then you are fighting the wrong fight.
Humble yourself. God will lift you up. God will bless your life. He will give you his joy.
Your relationship with him and with others will grow stronger.
He sold his business at a loss, went into vocational Christian work, and things got rather rough. There were four kids in the family. One night Timmy, the youngest said, "Mommy, do you think Jesus would mind if I asked Him for a shirt?"
"Of course not. Let’s write that down in our prayer request book." "shirt for Timmy" and she added "size seven." Timmy saw to it that every day they prayed for the shirt.
After several weeks, one Saturday the mother received a telephone call from a clothing store in downtown Dallas, a Christian businessman. "I’ve just finished my July clearance sale and knowing that you have four boys it occurred to me that you might use something we have left. Could you use some boy’s shirts?"
She said, "What size?" "Size seven." "How many do you have?" He said, "Twelve."
That night, as expected, Timmy said, "Don’t forget, Mommy, let’s pray for the shirt."
Mommy said, "We don’t have to pray for the shirt, Timmy," "How come?" "The Lord has answered your prayer." Brother Tommy goes out and gets one shirt, brings it in, and puts it down on the table. He goes out and gets another shirt and brings it it. Out -- back, out -- back, until he piles 12 shirts on the table, and Timmy thinks God is going into the shirt business.
There is a little kid in Dallas today by the name of Timothy who believes there is a God in heaven interested enough in his needs to provide boys with shirts.
