Most of you have heard of the Hatfield’s and the McCoy’s. The two famous families from Kentucky, but most do not know why this feud lasted over a decade, or why at least 12 people died. It was over a pig, that’s right, it started over a pig It turned into timber rights Escalated because one Hatfield was interested in a McCoy… until bullets fly and years later they don’t even remember why they hate each other. They just do!
Fussing and fighting isn’t new. One of the first stories in the Bible is about Cain getting mad at his brother Abel and killing him out of jealousy. (Illustration by Anthony Zibolski Sermon central)
Today we just need to pick up the newspaper or turn on the news. There is conflict everywhere around us. Just this week we saw domestic violence in the worst way in Edmonton.
In James 4:1-10 we see battles and conflict raging with other people… with God and even with ones-self. There are two main issues that seem to arise from these conflicts and they are selfishness that leads to fighting….and selfishness that keeps us from submitting to God. Let’s read James 4:1-10:
4 What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? 2 You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. 3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.
4 You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. 5 Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us? 6 But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says:
“God opposes the proud but shows favour to the humble.”
Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up.
I. The War that Rages
There is a war that rages. Philo writes: “Consider the continual war which prevails among men even in times of peace, and which exists not only between nations and countries and cities, but also between private houses,… [and in] every individual;”… (And I would add even in the church today)
Philo goes on to wonder: Can “Anyone enjoy tranquility in such a storm”.
Plato wrote: “The sole cause of wars and revolutions and battles is nothing other than the body and its desires.
Lucian wrote:” All the evil that comes upon man…springs from desire.
Cicero wrote: It is [-] desire which overturn not only individual men, but whole families, and which even bring down the state. From desires there springs hatred, schisms, discord…. and wars.
The philosophers seem to be right on par with James in James 4:1we read: 4 What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you?
William Barclay writes: The New Testament is clear that overcoming desire for the pleasures of this world is always a threatening danger to the spiritual life. It is the cares and pleasures of this life which combine to choke the good seed in the parable where some of the good seed fell among the thorns.
Paul wrote in Titus 3:3 that he had struggled with this desire: 3 At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another.
Barclay goes on to say: The ultimate choice in life lies between pleasing oneself and pleasing God; and a world in which men’s first aim is to please themselves is a battleground of savagery and division. This is the battle that can rage.
II. Understanding desire
There are three things I think we should know when trying to understand desire.
1. These desires can drive apart friends, families and associates. When we are trying to gratify the desires of worldly things we are going to come in conflict with others who have the same desires for the things we want. But… obedience to the will of God brings people together. James 4:1 from The Message says: Where do you think all these appalling wars and quarrels come from? Do you think they just happen? Think again. They come about because you want your own way, and fight for it deep inside yourselves.
2. Secondly, sinful desires brew in one’s sole and can drive people to shameful deeds. What starts as a desire becomes the driving emotion of the heart; it begins to dominate the thoughts. Eventually it becomes a ruling passion and eventually if it is not dealt with the individual will act on their desires willing to crush anyone who stands in their way.
Barclay states: Every Crime in this world has come from a desire which was first only a feeling in the heart but which, being nourished long enough, came in the end to action. James 4:2 in The Message says: You lust for what you don’t have and are willing to kill to get it.
3. Thirdly, nurturing sinful and worldly desire will shut the door to God. If we are so focused on our desires then we most-likely are hurting in our prayer life. Also, if our prayer life is focused on our worldly desires then God will not answer the selfish prayer. Our only pure desire should be: Thy will be done. James 4:3 states in The Message: You wouldn’t think of just asking God for it, would you? And why not? Because you know you’d be asking for what you have no right to. You’re spoiled children, each wanting your own way.
Jeanne Serrão, a professor at Mount Vernon Nazarene University says: James and his audience were steeped in a worldview that pleasures are an enemy of character. This is extremely countercultural to modern western society. Commercials, T.V. programs, and movies continually bombard us with the belief that everything should feel good.
In a world the assaults us with this message, it is difficult to make sure our desires align with God’s will. God wants to give His children the desires of their heart, but we need to make sure our desires line up with His desires.
I know when I was driving truck in the states I was told by my friends that I was developing an American accent. I started using American phrases and would change words. I might even add “a y’all” once in a while.
This is how the sinful desires creep in. We pick up the values of the world and maybe sometimes it happens ever so subtly and other times it comes rushing in.
Jeanne states: “True contentment comes when we ask for things that will benefit us and others for eternity”…Let me repeat that: “True contentment comes when we ask for things that will benefit us and others for eternity”…She goes on to say: A community full of people looking for happiness in sensual pleasures will be… [Stricken]… with conflict, quarrels, and jealousy.”
Like I said at the beginning, selfishness is at the heart of the problem. When we put our desires over the desires of God we have a problem. Where do our desires lie?
III. Humanity’s Humility
Suppose I invite you to my house for desert. I told you we were having angel food cake. I was going to make it for you. I told you I would need pancake mix, baking soda, brownie mix, water, milk, vinegar. You would think I was crazy. Those ingredients don’t make angel food. …But! Why can’t I make it the way I want too?
God says love and humbly obey me; I’ll give you such happiness that you can barely handle it. But you tell Him you want to do it yourself. I’ll want put anger, hostility, lust, narcotics, pride, and we wonder why it doesn’t work.
God says you do not have what you want because you demand to do it your way. We blame God when the cake of life we make is a disaster and don’t taste good anymore. (adapted from Anthony Zimbolski – Sermon Central)
James 4:6 says in The Message: You’re cheating on God. If all you want is your own way, flirting with the world every chance you get, you end up enemies of God and his way. And do you suppose God doesn’t care? The proverb has it that “he’s a fiercely jealous lover.” And what he gives in love is far better than anything else you’ll find. It’s common knowledge that “God goes against the willful proud; God gives grace to the willing humble.”
The answer to how do we deal with desire and selfishness is this: We need to be humble and we will receive all the Grace we need. There is a song we use to sing maybe at camp…It goes like this:
You sing “humble yourself before the Lord” 3 times and then it goes on to say “And He…Shall lift… you up” Comes right out of James 4:10
Simple song, but “God gives grace to the willing humble.” Paul sums this up in Philippians 2:3: Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.
In this context, James uses this term of humbling ourselves in the Jewish Old Testament sense. The readers are commanded to wash their hands and purify their hearts. This was an Old Testament way of saying: If you want to be close to God you need to stop doing what you know displeases God and they must start obeying God. (Serrão, New Beacon Commentary - James, pg. 149)
Oh Lord it is hard to be Humble!
IV. What is the answer?
So what is the answer to making this doable? Each of us have struggled with selfishness, evil and sinful desires, conflict with others and times of dark inner despair. Here is a passage that brings it all out. James is not holding anything back. He is putting all the cards on the table and looking at the not so beautiful.
But right in the midst of the passage is verse 8. Verse 8 is the answer to all of our life issues. It is the answer to dealing with evil and sinful desire. It is the answer to dealing with conflict with others and it is the answer to dealing with dark inner conflict.
James 4:8: 8 come near to God and He will come near to you. Or from the New revised standard version I think we get a better sense of what James was saying: Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.
When I hear the word “draw” I think of a pull or an attraction. But it is still a verb that required a choice on our part. When we make that choice to draw near to God they we are told He will draw near to us.
I get a picture that He is waiting………l waiting for us to make that decision to draw near to Him. When we are struggling evil and sinful desires, when we are at odds with those around us, when we are in that dark place…God is saying draw near to Me and I will draw near to you!
What is keeping you from drawing nearer to God? We have been given the tools…The Word of God, Prayer and Meditation. Are we opening up the tool box on a regular basis? I know when I have failed to open the tool box there is emptiness and a distance from God.
Come near to God and He will come near to you. It sounds a little too easy, but are you missing that intimacy with God?
Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up. draw near to Him and He will draw near to you.
