“Faithful to God alone”
James 4:1-10
If you go into the lobby of a big building:
• You’ll sometimes find the walls filled with mirrors.
• They often do that because they’ve discovered that
• people complain less about waiting for slow elevators
• when they’re occupied looking at themselves.
We like to talk about ourselves.
One of the surest ways of:
• starting a conversation with someone
• is to ask them about themselves.
I told all my kids this truth:
- almost everyone has a favorite topic
- and the topic most people like the most
- is the topic of themselves...
In fact one of the main things this world encourages us to do - is to center attention on ourselves
• Socrates said, "Know yourself."
• The psychiatrist says: "Express yourself"
• Many Counselors will say: "Love yourself.”
• The hedonist says: "Enjoy Yourself."
• The waiter will tell you: "Indulge yourself."
• The Personnel manager advises you: "Assert yourself."
• The health aid companies will advertise: "Take care of yourself."
• Leisure time industries will tell you: "Pamper yourselves."
Only Jesus says: "Deny yourself"… deny yourself … deny yourself.
“Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”
Matthew 16:24 (ESV)
Usually, I quote that scripture to say:
- our Christian journey will have hardships
- and we need to be willing to suffer for Christ
- that we should not expect this life to be one of ease and comfort
It is all that, but also this:
- that there will be desires we have that we must reject
- there will be good things we want that must be neglected
- because everything in this life comes in a distant second
Only God, His Church and His purpose get the number one position.
We need to focus:
• not so much upon ourselves and what we want…
• as upon God and what He wants.
• And realize that when we make God second, we Cheat on God
1. When the world is my mistress it damages my relationships.
“What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? 2 You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. 4 You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”
- James 4:1-4 (ESV)
Pride is a root of selfishness:
- people fight to get their own way
- people fight over the biggest piece of the pie
- it may be pie, wealth, possessions, or positions
Prideful people will:
- fight anyone for anything for any or no reason
- they want things how they want them
- and nothing else matters.
Pride has no place:
- in the Christian or in the Church
- but often pride shows up and
- and soon division, chaos and trouble arrive as well
Pride and selfishness have got to go!
- because first they bring chaos to the Church
- revealing that they are not friends of God
- but in fact they are enemies of God disguised as wolves in sheep’s clothing
2. When we love the world, we make God our enemy
“Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? 6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
- James 4:5-6 (ESV)
We want our spouse for ourselves:
- we do not intend to share them with others
- they belong to us, and we belong to them
- the two become 1 flesh (wedding vows)
God wants us for Himself:
- He doesn’t want to share us
- with anyone or anything
- and unlike human jealousy that is evil
God jealous is based:
- not only on His desire for a relationship with us
- but also God’s jealous is concerned for our well-being
- because God knows that the world is perishing and everything in it
God knows that there is NO hope in the world:
- No real peace, no future, no love
- no real joy, no relationship
- and no salvation from sin,
God saved us:
• out of the world,
• God did not save us from the world of sin
• so, we could climb back into bed with the world
If you want to be God’s enemy:
- fall in love with the world
- fall in love with attitudes and philosophies of the day
- ignore God, make Him second.
This world, this country, this Church:
- need to repent and get humble before the Lord
- we must lower ourselves
- We must become less, and move closer to God
3. Stop pulling away from God and come home!
7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.”
James 4:7-8 (ESV)
My dog Adrienne:
- loves to run outside, free as the wind
- she loves to chase rabbits, squirrels, birds
- if she catches something slipping,
- she’ll bring it and put it on the porch
That is what she loves, what she hates is obedience:
- call her and she might come
- put her on a leash and she will pull you down the street
- tie her up outside and she will pull out of her harness
I often see my dog and wonder:
- if I am any better than my dog
- am I obedient?
- do I pull away and run wherever I want?
- do I even come when God calls me?
Are you pulling away from God?
- resisting His ways?
- tasting sin and liking it?
- running away when God calls your name?
4. Repent and Humble yourself
“Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.”
- James 4:9 (ESV)
When we become Christians:
- we are still prone to go back to the sinful vomit God saved us from
- though graphic, that is how God puts it
- “as a dog returns to it’s vomit”
Our sin ought to:
- cause us grief and pain
- it ought to bring us to tears and shame
- it ought to stop us in our tracks and wipe the smile off our faces.
Do we know that sin:
- separates us from God
- separates us from God’s ability to bless us?
- takes us off the path God wants for us?
- that sin is lethal?
While there is forgiveness of sin:
- and I am so thankful for God’s grace
- there needs to be a time
- of grieving over one’s sins
God’s mercy is new every morning,
- but the Bible says we need to grieve our sin,
- we ought to hate our sin
- we need to get low and be humble before the LORD
5. Allow God to pick your level
“Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.”
James 4:10 (ESV)
Early in James 4:
- we looked at the trouble being prideful and selfish brought
- the division, discord and disaster that came with
- the desire for more power, more possessions, and more prestige
On a fleshly, prideful selfish level:
- we would all like to have a promotion
- we would all like to advance
- we would all like to enjoy the finer things in life
James is saying here:
- Let God do the promoting
- do not advertise yourself and push yourself to the front of the line
- Let God do the promoting and you do not promote yourself.
Get humble and trust:
- that God is able to put you where He wants you
- and our goal ought be
- to be wherever God wants us
Have you ever watched 6-year-olds play basketball?
- they all want the ball
- none of the will pass the ball
- they will break all the rules so they can shoot the ball…
While the 6 year olds are cute to watch:
- we should be sure that we are not duplicating their selfishness
- God is the one who calls the plays and
- we are to be in the position he puts us
- it matters not if we want the ball.
We need to humble ourselves before the Lord;
- and He will lift us up
- whatever God wants is right
- and no job on earth is too low for us…
Whatever position God:
- wants us to play
- is our command
- if we want to play center and God says be waterboy,
- that is fine with us…
We must come to see ourselves how we truly are:
- we are tiny in God’s presence
- we must not think that we as worms
- can over-rule the creator of the universe
The truth is that:
God is strong we are weak:
God provides for us, and we are unable to help ourselves
We are wretches and God is full of grace.
Everything good we have comes from God!
So, as we wrap things up:
- God is calling us to come closer.
He asks us to empty ourselves of
selfishness and pride and envy and desire.
Humility is what we wear when we approach God:
- because we must acknowledge that:
o We are wicked, rebellious sinners.
o That we are lost and cannot save ourselves
o That we have earned Hell and time is limited
We have no excuse; we are just guilty.
We come to God in humility or not at all:
We come as beggars to God…
Admiral Rickover once visited a nuclear boat:
in civilian clothing,
was admitted, and
began touring the boat.
As he approached:
the reactor room
a second class (E-5 Sergeant)
stopped him from entering.
When the Admiral went:
to push past the man,
the Sergeant picked up a very large wrench and
offered to split the Admiral’s head open.
Later, during a post-tour discussion:
the Admiral asked the sailor if he recognized him
(the Father of the Nuclear Navy) and if so,
why the young sailor wouldn’t let the Admiral enter the reactor room.
The sailor said:
“Because, sir, you didn’t have the boat’s Reactor Room badge. No one comes into my reactor room without the proper pass, not even you.”
The next day the young man was spot promoted to E-6.
So many people think they can get into heaven:
- because they come to Church
- or they used to go to Church
- or they said a prayer once
- or they give in the offering
- or they invent a reason God will allow them into heaven...
Everyone is invited to heaven:
but not everyone will go…
because not everyone will humble themselves
to do things God’s way
Jesus is the only way….
“…there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which they must be saved.”
Acts 4:12 (ESV)
The Bible is clear that:
- you must believe Jesus is the Messiah,
- the Jesus is God in the flesh
- that He died on the cross for your sins
- you must confess that Jesus is Lord with your mouth
- you must turn and reject your sinful ways, that is called repentance
- and you must be IMMERSED into the grave of baptism
I’ll finish with this and then the invitation:
“Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 7 For one who has died has been set free from sin.”
Romans 6:3-7 (ESV)
Have you obeyed the gospel?
- are you free from your sin
- or do you still need to do that?
- why not make today the day you start again…. with Jesus
Credit: Intro illustrations from:
- https://sermoncentral.com/sermons/i-surrender-jeff-strite-sermon-on-humility-130535
- Mark Opperman quote
So, as we wrap things up God is calling us to come closer. He asks us to empty ourselves of selfishness and pride and envy and desire.
