Sermon: What a Christian Must Feel James 4 May 15, 2005
A bishop was visiting a church one day and was invited to dinner with the chairman of the board and his wife and daughter. During the meal the Bishop ask the little girl what she thought of church. She said that a person must be very brave to go to church. “Why do you say that?” asked the bishop. “Because,” she answered, “My Daddy told Mommy last Sunday that there was a big shot in the pulpit, the lay leader killed the spirit, the choir murdered the anthem, and the organist drowned everybody!”
It would seem that James would agree with the little girl you must be very brave to go to church for no sooner had he in Chapter 3 confronted believers about their tongues that he then jumps from the frying pan into the fire by confronting the church about internal fighting and quarreling. Conflict in the church has been a problem since the beginning of the church. There was fighting and quarreling among the twelve disciples over who was the greatest, Paul and Barnabus went their separate ways because of disagreement and fighting amongst themselves. The Jerusalem church was in conflict over who was and wasn’t acceptable in God kingdom. Denominations cut one another down. Churches split. Fights break out during church board meetings, in church parking lots. Christians slander and judge one another with critical spirit. Visitors and new believers find themselves in a cross fire of arguments, resentments and power struggles that may carry a veneer of spiritual truth but are more often simply when one person’s wants conflicts with another’s. Many of us know people who have been alienated from the church because of a conflict that had nothing to do with the gospel.
James doesn’t waste time saying that these conflicts shouldn’t occur. He is a realist. He knows whenever a group of earthly being get together there is going to be conflict whether that is in the context of a family, work, home or the church. In fact he says that there are three areas of conflict within our lives: Conflict with others, conflict within ourselves and conflict with God. And he doesn’t beat around the bush about it. He gets right to the point. He says those conflicts are because in VS. 2: you want something and you don’t get it. Ouch!
James is pretty blunt, but think about it? Think about the last time you had a fight with your spouse or significant other, the last time you had a fight with your roommate or best friend. The last fight you had with your children – which was probably this morning while you were trying to get ready for church. Think about the fights you have had in church with church members. Wasn’t it about what you wanted verse what they wanted. I mean we couch it in terms of spirituality – we are doing what God wants, but most of the time the person we are arguing with in church also believes what they are saying and doing is what God wants.
Even when it comes to our personal relationship with God our biggest problems, are biggest difficulties with the Word is when it conflicts with what we want. When God asks us to do something we don’t want to do like give up a particular sin, give up our hatred for someone else, give up our critical, judgmental spirit, forgive somebody we don’t want to forgive, give money we don’t want to give, trust him when we would rather fix it ourselves our way. We don’t pray when should pray. We are self sufficient. We look to the wrong source. We look to people to fulfill our needs instead of looking to God. James says even when we do pray we often pray with the wrong motives. We ask for things in a selfish way. We pray about what we want. We pray that God will reveal the truth to the other person – the truth being what we want. We pray God will change the other person to think and be more like us.
We plan our futures based on ourselves, we boast about tomorrow. What our career plans are, what kind of house we are going to get, how much money we are going have, the kind of husband or wife we will have. When we describe retirement we speak in selfish terms as it finally being our time to enjoy the fruits of our labor. Those things in of themselves are not wrong. What is wrong is when God isn’t our first priority. When we aren’t first seeking His Will, His desires, His kingdom, when we don’t fully depend and trust God to handle things. Especially when we are in conflict – we start fighting with someone at home, at work or in the church how many times do we first stop and pray. No instead we have the fight and then we pray God fix them.
James says you kill and covet adulterous people. James’ expressions shock us. Kill, covet, adultery – not us. But remember how Jesus took the key words of the ten commandments and expanded them in Matthew 5:21 Jesus said You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ’Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ 22 But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. 1 John 3:15 says anyone who [angry] hates his brother is a murderer. For Jesus murdering is equal to verbal assassination, hatred is a hyperbole for conflict, fighting, quarrelling , dissension.
In the OT the people of God are considered to the Bride of God. In the New Testament the church and His people are the Bride of Christ. James is calling us to understand adulterers as a figure of speech for spiritual unfaithfulness. It is a blunt and shocking way to jar his readers and us awake to the reality of our spiritual condition. When we are in conflict within ourselves, when we are fighting and quarrelling with others and with God we are as bad as adulterers and murders.
And then just about the time we are feeling like James has stepped on toes enough, just about the time as Sonny puts it we need a bandage because James has tromped on our toes until they are bleeding. James says but God gives us grace if we will just humble ourselves before God. He gives us the cure for the conflict we feel within ourselves, the conflict we feel with others and the conflict we feel with God.
(From a sermon by James Mooney found on Sermon Central) First, submit yourself to God. Submission is a military word that means to rank under, subject oneself to another, to obey and to place yourself in proper rank. To submit then is to yield to the authority and will of God. We are to obey God rather than our fleshly desires and wants. We are to give God control of our life and conflicts. We are to put Him in charge. James says the real issue, the real conflict is who is in charge of your life. If you are in charge than anytime somebody comes along that doesn’t go the way you want to go, doesn’t agree with what you think you get uptight. You get irritated. You get upset. You want things just the way you want them to go and when they don’t go that way, it makes you mad.
If God is in charge of your life, it doesn’t irritate you as much. It is the peace that passes all understanding. Col. 3:15 says Let the peace of Christ rule in your heart. Peace that knows and trusts God is control. When we have the peace of Christ in our hearts then we will be a peace with other people. If we don’t have this peace in our life, we try to manipulate others, try to control them, and try to move them around to get what we want of out of life. We have to get our lives in alignment with God.
When the tires on your car are out of alignment, they wear out unevenly a lot faster than they should. You begin to feel your car pull to the left or right. Many people think if they change their tires that it will fix the problem but it doesn’t. It just costs you more money. The wear and tear on the tires, the pulling to the left or the right is just an indicator that you have problems somewhere else. If you want to save the wear and tera on your tires, the pulling left and right you have to get the front end alighted.
People spend their lives jumping from one friend to another, one person to another, one spouse to another, one church to another, thinking that that friend, person, spouse or church was the problem. When in reality the problem is in them. Changing circumstances or people doesn’t fix the problem. Getting your life aligned with God will. Submitting to God will fix the problems of conflict.
Then secondly, James says resist Satan, there goes those strong words again, Satan, evil. We prefer to think of it as just conflict, problems-we don’t want to over spiritualize things you know. But James says wise up Satan is at work against you but if you have first submitted to God than it won’t do you any good to resist the devil. .
Recognize that things that divide, separate you or the church from his kingdom is from Satan. Recognize his tactics, realize what he is doing. Realize where the conflict comes from that Satan is the source behind it. Don’t be dumb. Don’t be ignorant. “Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” The word “resist” is a war term. It means to be prepared. To stand against. Withstand an attack. The devil wants to destroy your marriage. He wants to destroy your relationship with your children. He wants to destroy every good relationship you have. He wants to destroy the church. He loves conflict, arguments. He wants to cause confusion, fights, stress, hurt feelings, disappointment, anger, chaos. He loves to do it. James says you have got to give into God, let him have control. Then you have got to do some defensive action.
You have got to resist the devil and realize what he is doing. If you get up in the morning and you don’t run into the devil, head on, it means you are already going in his direction. The devil doesn’t stand around with a pitchfork and a red suit like on the Underwoods deviled ham. He plays on our pride, particularly, wounded pride. He tells us what we want to hear. He whispers in our ear. He gives us little thoughts, suggestions, ideas. Like when you are in the middle of an argument he starts saying things like “You don’t have to take this kind of stuff. Who do they think they are? Show them whose boss. Its your right. You don’t have to do what they say no matter what it is they say. If you give into them now, they will run all over you. They will take your church away and the church will fall apart. The church can’t get along without you telling them exactly what they should do. He tells you all the things your pride loves to hear. And when he does, when you start hearing his whispers. You need to say, “Satan I know that you – get thee behind me Satan.”
And then we need to draw closer to God. If there is anything Satan wants to do it is to stop you from getting closer to God. The closer you get to God, the better you get to know Him the more you become like him. James says clean your hands and purify your hearts. Make sure your hands, your actions, and your heart and soul is clean of Satan’s deceit. That what you are doing and saying really is what God would have you do and say. Make sure your inner thoughts and your motives and feelings toward others is pure
Mourn and weep, let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to heaviness. James isn’t talking about the joy and laughter of salvation. He is talking about the joy and laughter you get when you win a conflict and leave the other person wounded and hurting. We all know the feeling we have when we have won the fight or got our point across. “I got my way. I got what I wanted. Sometimes we get so caught up in our rights to have things our way we forget what is right, we forget when we push our rights, our way to the point of hurting or breaking the spirit, murdering someone else reputation that we are grievously sinning.
The Message Bible puts it this way “Hit bottom and cry your eyes out. The fun and games are over. Get serious, really serious, get down on your knees before the Master.” Truly be sorry for your sin, be passionate about your repentance. Let it show that you are truly seeking to change, amend your ways. We can’t even admit we were wrong to one another. How often how you kept up a fight, even when you deep down knew you were wrong, but by golly you weren’t ever going to admit it to the other person? Mourn and weep accept the burden, the heaviness of your sin, admit you approached things wrong, allow for the fact that the other person might have a point, listen and learn from each other, find ways to compromise and work together, be willing to ask for forgiveness and give forgiveness - Phillipians 2:3-5 “do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interest but also to the interest of others. Humble yourself before others, accept the responsibility for your actions, your sin, wail in regret –humble yourself before God.
And then, then, God will lift you. God doesn’t want to leave us beaten up and down on the ground defeated. He doesn’t want us to leave with our toes stomped and bashed up. He wants to heal us of the conflict we feel within ourselves, the conflict we feel with others and the conflict we feel with Him. He wants us to know his love and grace. He wants us to know we are forgiven. He want us to know he will give us the power to change and become the person he desires us to be. Perhaps this morning you need to go to somebody today in your family, workplace or in this church and say “I have been selfish and I’m sorry. I have not always listened I have been seeking my way but now I hope together we can find his way.” Don’t hesitate, don’t wait. Start letting God change you today! Let God restore in each of us, in our families and in our church the peace of Christ. Amen and amen.
