Real Faith for Real Life: James Four
Scott Bayles, pastor
Blooming Grove Christian Church: 10/21/2012
Good morning and welcome to Blooming Grove. It’s great to see such a good crowd here this morning and you’re all awake, which is a plus. I heard about a mom who was talking to her kids in the car on the way to church and she reminded them that they needed to be quiet during the sermon. She prompted them, asking, “And why is it necessary to be quiet in church?” Her little girl answered, “Because some people are sleeping!” Awake or asleep, we’re just glad you’re here and we hope you feel welcome.
A few weeks ago we started this series through the book of James, which is all about real faith for real life. If you’ll remember, in the first chapter, James talks about how real faith helps us carry our burdens, overcome our battles, and to apply our Bibles to our lives. In chapter two, James goes about defining real faith for real life and he identifies three types of faith—dead faith, demonic faith, and dynamic faith. In chapter three, James talks about how real faith ought to affect the way we talk; the things we say. Our words have the power to direct, destroy or delight—so we need to be careful as Christians about what comes out of our mouths.
As we move into chapter four, I want to remind you again that James is Jesus’ little brother. Think about the dynamics of growing up in Jesus’ shadow. How much pressure was that? A couple of weeks ago in youth-group, we watched this Christian comedian named Michael Jr. who talked that. He said, “Everybody probably thought he could do all the stuff that Jesus could do, but he couldn’t. He was just James, not James Christ… and you know how little brothers are. I’m sure everywhere that Jesus went, James followed him. Everything Jesus did, James tried to do it too. That’s what little brothers do.” So, Michael Jr. says, “I’ll bet one time, James almost drowned.”
I don’t know about that, but I do know that James was probably very familiar with concepts like jealousy and covetousness. And he writes about those here in chapter four. Let me share it with you: “What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Don’t they come from the evil desires at war within you? You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them.” (James 4:1-2 NLT).
These opening verses are all about the reality of covetousness.
• THE REALITY OF COVETOUSNESS
Covetousness is what Dave Ramsey calls it stuffitis. And God thought it was serious enough to make “thou shall not covet” one of the Ten Commandments. It’s this persistent desire for more stuff, better stuff, bigger stuff, prettier stuff, other people’s stuff. And this covetousness sets in at an early age, doesn’t it?
If my son earns a sucker or a piece of candy at school for good behavior, I tell him, “You better eat that all gone before we get home, because you know what’s going to happen if your little sister sees it.” She’ll cry and scream because she wants one too.
An elementary school teacher on recess duty was lecturing to her class on the dangers of not bundling up properly when playing in the winter cold. She told them a dramatic story about a naughty little boy who disobeyed his mother and went sledding one afternoon without his mittens, cap, and snow suit. Because of it, he caught pneumonia and died. When she finished her story, one boy raised his hand. "Mrs. Johnson, may I ask two questions?"
"Go ahead, Tommy," the teacher replied.
"Who has his sled now and could I have it?"
Some of us don’t grow out of this, though. We see someone with something cool and we have to have it too. Americans are drowning in debt because we covet things that we can’t afford. Consumers have racked up more than $2.2 trillion in purchases and cash advances on major credit cards in just the last year. And it’s become a habit for them to spend more than they have. To compound the problem, fewer people are paying their credit cards bills on time. The percentage of people delinquent on their credit cards is the highest it's been in years (CNN.com 2/22/08).
Jesus said to his disciples, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions” (Luke 12:15 ESV). Life is not all about stuff. That’s what James is trying to tell us. These were Christian people he was writing to, yet they had been swallowed up by greed, jealousy and covetousness. This is real life stuff that real Christians wrestle with. But real faith means learning to be content in every circumstance. If you see yourself coming down with a case of stuffitis, you need to do something about it quickly because when you don’t the results will be conflict among Christians.
• THE RESULT OF CONFLICT
Things were made to be used. People were made to be loved. Some of us get those two backwards. And when we do it results in conflict and contentiousness. Take another look at those two verses from James: “Do you know where your fights and arguments come from? They come from the selfish desires that war within you. You want things, but you do not have them. So you are ready to kill and are jealous of other people, but you still cannot get what you want. So you argue and fight” (James 4:1-2 NCV).
When we don’t get what we want, we argue and fight. Sadly, this happens in churches all the time, doesn’t it? James may as well have written this yesterday, because it’s still happening, isn’t it?
Jealousy, covetousness, and selfishness lead to all sorts of fights and arguments. Churches argue over the style and volume of music, over whether communion should be served from the front or from the back, over how the money is being spent. We feel slighted or unappreciated in some way, so we start a feud with God’s family. Nearly every church split comes down to someone not getting what they want.
In the church that we served before coming here, there were several young families with kids around that same age who joined the church around the same time. One of those young families was having a birthday party for her daughter and invited some of the other kids from church. Well, my wife happened to mention the party to Kendra, one of the other moms at church, only to discover that Kendra’s kids were not invited. Not normally a big deal to most people, but it was big deal to her. She felt insulted and left out and nothing anybody said to contrary would change her mind about that. She made sure everyone knew how she felt and why and then stopped coming to church. The really sad thing is—her kids, who were significantly older—probably didn’t care about the party. And now they’ve learned that when you don’t get what you want—even at church—you can just take your ball and go home.
When Christians fight amongst themselves, nobody wins. An African proverb says, “When elephants fight, the grass always loses.” The average African elephant weighs 16,000 lbs. And when they throw their weight around there can be a lot of collateral damage. Building a loving church family is hard enough without over-sized egos throwing their weight around. The Bible says, “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone” (Rom 12:18 NIV).
But this sort of covetous and materialistic spirit doesn’t just damage our relationships with other people—it also damages our relationship with God. James says, “You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God?” (James 4:4 NLT). So not only does this self-centered lifestyle make enemies in the church, but it causes conflict with God. And James says that results in hinders prayers: “When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives” (James 4:3 NLT). So our own sakes and for the sake of the church, we need to find a solution to our covetousness and the conflicts that arise from it.
Thankfully James provides one—the resolution of closeness.
• THE RESOLUTION OF CLOSENESS
James wants these warring Christians to resolve to humble themselves and draw closer to God. Here’s what he says: “So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come close to God, and God will come close to you… Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up in honor” (James 4:7-10 NLT). Real faith for real life is about seeking God, not stuff! It’s not about getting my way and what I want; it’s about seeking first his kingdom and his righteousness. And we do that best when we humble ourselves. Life is not all about me. It’s not all about you.
The purpose of your life is far greater than your own personal fulfillment, your peace of mind, or even your happiness. It’s far greater than your family, your career, or even your dreams and ambitions. You were created by God and for God.
And so, the cure for covetousness and conflict is humility before God.
The Bible says, “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.” (Proverbs 3:34). Pride makes us self-centered and leads us to think we deserve everything we can see, touch or imagine. We can release ourselves from self-centeredness by humbling ourselves before God and realizing that all we really need is his approval. Our worth comes from God alone.
I’m not the center of the universe; Jesus is. And when we recognize that it gives us a whole new perspective. Paul writes: “Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ” (Philippians 3:8 NLT). Brennan Manning put it this way, “Once you come to know the love of Jesus Christ, nothing else in the world will seem as beautiful or desirable.”
Our goal, then, should be to humbly draw close to God. And James promises that when we do, God will also draw close to us. When all of us start gravitating closer and closer to God then we won’t be jealous or covetous of one another. Disagreements will still arise but they won’t have to turn into conflicts; rather we can lovingly lift one another up and trust that God will lift us up.
I believe it was C.S. Lewis who said, “A man who has God and nothing else has no less than a man who has God and everything else.”
Conclusion:
I don’t know if James coveted Jesus’ ability to walk on water or his power to turn water into wine when they were growing up, but I do know that as believer James recognized the reality of covetousness and how it often results in destructive conflicts—fights and arguments. And James believed that real faith should motive us to humble ourselves and draw closer to God.
Invitation:
I don’t know if you’ve been struggling with coveting or conflicts in your relationships, but if you’d like some help in drawing closer to God, that’s what the church is here for. So if there’s anything that I can do, please come talk to me.
