Submitting to God
James 4:1-10
Have you ever wondered how some wars began? Consider how some of the following wars got started — about 1,000 years ago, a war between two cities in France started as the result of a conflict over a water bucket. A Chinese emperor went to war because of a broken teapot. In 1654 a war broke out between Sweden and Poland because of a copyist’s error involving the number of times the words et cetera was listed following one of the king’s names. One of the many conflicts between England and France originated with the spilling of a single glass of water. (Andy Atkins -- sermoncentral.com)
One of the greatest areas of conflict in our lives occurs internally. It occurs because we are torn with some of the decisions we need to make. Do you remember the story about Jesus riding into Jerusalem on that magical Palm Sunday? The crowds were cheering and shouting "Hosanna! Blessed is the One who comes in the name of the Lord!" The people had an opportunity to call upon Jesus as Lord or to reject Him. Before we knew it, those same people who were cheering would soon be crying out "Crucify Him!" They would acknowledge no authority over their lives other than their own. They remained firmly seated as ruler of their own lives.
This same scene is acted out in every life. Jesus comes humbly riding in our direction. We are all in favor of His favors. We want to be blessed with His blessings. We’re excited about how He might benefit us, how we might be able to use Jesus. But when we learn that He doesn’t come into our lives unless we surrender to His lordship, we think again about how much of Jesus we really want.
I believe this is the biggest obstacle for people who face the decision of becoming a Christian or who have been life long Christians. In many respects, it is a life long, every day decision process we must endure. We would like to have the benefits of Jesus Christ in our lives, but we want to maintain control. We want Him to come in, but only in a comfortable, quiet corner of our lives — not taking over everything. We want God in our lives, but we want Him in a very small private corner. We want Jesus to be our friend, a friend we can talk to, a friend who will listen, a friend who will give us whatever we need, but not a friend who will challenge us and call us to the highest form of commitment, surrendering our lives to Him. We want to maintain control of certain aspects of our lives. It has been said that the number of Christians is increasing, that is good news, but at the same time, there is a decline in the moral climate of the nation. People are becoming Christians without it making any real difference in the way they live.
When this happens, it begins to create a tremendous conflict in your life. In Galatians 5:17, Paul wrote, "For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want." You see, a war, literal war is raging in your soul. It is a battle to see who will control your life. When we are in the midst of this spiritual battle, there is conflict, and that conflict brings frustration and unhappiness. There is no peace in your heart.
In our scripture, James analyzes the problem and then offers a solution. James says there is a spiritual war going on inside of us, and the first thing he has to say about it is: The source of the conflict is selfishness. He writes:
"What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures" (4:1-3).
The Greek word for "pleasures" is the source of the English word "hedonism." Hedonism is the philosophy that views pleasure as the chief goal of life. But hedonism is not just the desire to enjoy life, we all want that, but it is a self- indulgent lifestyle that we walk all over others in order to please themselves. Many people who indulge in only pleasing themselves find that when pleasure eludes them, conflict and war arises. Look at the list of words James uses in this section — fights, quarrels, battles and killing. In other words, a war is going on inside our heart and soul. God wants control and you want control. You’re at war with God, and whenever you fight God, you will always lose.
Don’t get me wrong, you want God, but you also want life on your terms. You want God, but you also want to continue through life just as you please. James says you are double-minded. It is a comment he has made over and over throughout this short letter. If you don’t know it by now, James doesn’t like double-minded people, because their faith isn’t genuine, it’s filled with hypocrisy, they’re acting and not genuine.
But just think, if you fully embrace Jesus, and give Him all of you, you will most assuredly have to give up something. But our inner struggle stems from the fact that we want God and our own desires, and James reminds us we can’t have it both ways. In fact, James says that people who live this way, pray only selfish prayers with improper motives. They pray for God to give them things simply so they can spend them on their desires, or lustful pleasures. When we pray this way, we are no different than the people in Jerusalem — one moment, praising God and the next moment shouting ‘crucify Him.’
In his book, The Sacred Romance, Brent Curtis talks about how our divided hearts try to meet our spiritual void by filling them with other, more readily available pleasures. He says, "Once we allow our heart to drink water from these less-than-eternal wells with the goal of finding the life we were made for, it overpowers our will, and becomes, as Jonathan Edwards said, ‘like a viper, hissing and spitting at God."
This leads to James’ second point — The result of the conflict is rebellion. Resistance to God’s will for our lives ultimately leads to outright rebellion against God. When selfishness rules our lives and God comes to claim us, what happens? We are determined to have our way. We have become enemies of God. We have sought another love and we have a divided loyalty. James says,
"You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Out of jealousy God longs for the Spirit that He made to live in us. But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble’" (James 4:4-6).
One of the negative comments against the evangelical, conservative church is that we aren’t tolerant of other people. Yet the call of the gospel is not to be tolerant. It’s to demonstrate Christian love to those who don’t know Christ. But nowhere does Jesus say ‘we must tolerate the sinfulness of this world.’ James tells us we have a choice, ‘friendship with the world or friendship with God.’ James follows the thought process of Jesus, when Jesus said ‘we can’t serve two masters.’ We can only serve one — it is either God or the world.
Even in the aftermath of the terrorist attack, I have seen so much ‘political correctness’ that it turns my stomach. In the same way that we are called to follow Christ, we are also called to be American or not American.
Did you know that on CNN, you will never hear them refer to the terrorists as terrorists, they are suspected terrorists, because we cannot prove it.
In Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, school officials removed "God Bless America" signs from schools in fear that someone might be offended.
Channel 12 News in Long Island, New York, ordered flags removed from the newsroom and red, white, and blue ribbons removed from the lapels of reporters. Why? Management didn’t want to appear biased and felt that our nations flag might give the appearance that "they lean one way or another."
Berkeley, California banned U.S. Flags from being displayed on city fire trucks because they didn’t want to offend anyone in the community.
In an "act of tolerance" the head of the public library at Florida Gulf Coast University ordered all "Proud to be an American" signs removed so as to not offend international students.
While this sermon is not about being an American, when we begin to shift our loyalties from God to the world, because we think the world will be offended at our radical call for love, then we are giving in to the world. In England an Episcopal priest encouraged children to pray for Osama Bin Laden, and parents became incensed and wanted him to apologize for doing what we should be doing, praying for the enemy.
Do you see what happens when you try to split your allegiance? You can never, never be fully devoted to either. Obviously, the call of the church is to devote your life to Jesus, and that is my greatest desire for us, but when we turn away from God, we are now worshiping another god.
James is saying our rebellion is not just a battle to have our way over God’s way. You see, there are not 3 choices: God’s way, my way, or the devil’s way. There are only two choices. To rebel against God is to choose the devil’s way. He is our other lover, because he makes us think he’ll provide us with the things we want. He is the viper now within us who moves us to hiss and spit at God. The war for our soul is on, and the battle lines are drawn.
Now you may be thinking, even mumbling, I most certainly don’t worship satan. Michael, you’re nuts. But let me ask you one question — Who are you fully devoted to following? Is it Jesus, will you pick up your cross and follow Him, or is it satan, who says, ‘you don’t have to go to church, you’re saved, you don’t have to help, you’re saved; enjoy life, party, do your own thing, find pleasure now, you can always return to God.’ Who are you following?
Finally, James comes to the solution. The solution of this inner conflict is submission. Listen to his last few verses — "Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double- minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up" (James 4:7-10).
In verses 7 - 10, James gives a series of ten commands — submit, resist, come near, wash, purify, grieve, mourn, wail, change & humble yourselves. These call for an immediate response on our part. James is telling is that we have been resisting God, now we must resist the devil. We have given in to sin, now we must submit to God. We have been full of passion for the things of this world, now we must be full of passion for God and the things of the Spirit. We have been laughing it up, now we must grieve over our sin in true repentance. Our soul has been contaminated by sin, now we must wash ourselves. We have been proud, now we must humble ourselves before God. For the past 9 weeks we have been talking about being an authentic Christianity, and in many respects this is the crux of the issue for us — will we submit to God or to the devil?
Friends, this is one of the hardest things you will be asked to do in your life. In fact, this is the hardest thing you will be asked to do. Becoming a Christian in some ways is the easy step. It is easy because we don’t know what is next. We feel good, relieved, we experience grace, love, forgiveness. But now comes the next phase, living out that life. It takes constant surrender to God.
Think about your life. Think about the something as recently as this past week, when you have been involved in some kind of argument. What was at the root of that quarrel? Was it your selflessness or your selfishness?
James reminds us that the good news is if we flee from the devil, if we run from him, if we kick him out of our lives, he will flee from us. Of course the prerequisite is that we submit ourselves to God, that we chase God, and notice what happens when we seek God, when we chase Him? God, in turn will draw near to us. He will allow Himself to be caught. Joshua and Zachary love playing hide and seek. They love trying to run and get past me. The biggest part of the fun is getting caught. I tease them and entice them, but the greatest joy is when they are caught. If I don’t catch them they are disappointed. In the same way, God desires for us to seek Him, and when we do, He promises to allow Himself to be caught. But again it is a matter of submitting ourselves to Him, doing it willingly, repentantly and doing it with our whole being.
There was a story in the Atlantic Monthly Magazine by John Killinger, who tells a about how wild horses were tamed in the days of the great western cattle ranches: "A little burro would be harnessed to a wild steed. Bucking and raging, convulsing like drunken sailors, the two would be turned loose like Laurel and Hardy to proceed out onto the desert range. They could be seen disappearing over the horizon, the great steed dragging that little burro along and throwing him about like a bag of cream puffs. They might be gone for days, but eventually they would come back. The little burro would be seen first, trotting back across the horizon, leading the submissive steed in tow. Somewhere out there on the rim of the world, that steed would become exhausted from trying to get rid of the burro, and in that moment, the burro would take mastery and become the leader."
That’s the way it is with us. We give ourselves to Christ, but the wild passions of our lives continue to throw us about. They rage and convulse in an effort to dominate us, so that it seems that they will never come under control. But when we surrender to God, with a quiet determination to be His, the things that once tossed us about come under the control of a humble heart that has been given to Jesus. Our surrendered heart becomes the leader of all our wild desires and brings us home where our lives can be fulfilled in ways which we could never have imagined before. (Help from Robert Buchanan)
