EXTREME MAKEOVER: HUNCHED BACK
James 4:1-10
May 30, 2004
Introduction:
This morning we will be continuing our series titled Extreme Makeover. We have been going through the book of James to see what kind of a makeover Jesus would give us. We have already learned that Jesus would give us big ears so that we can hear His word. He would give us dirty hands as we live out what we have learned from His word. Last time we saw that Jesus would pierce our tongues to bring the power of the tongue under His control.
Today we are going to discover that Jesus would give us hunched backs. Once again you may be tempted to protest. Who wants to be a hunchback? Who wants to be deformed? Unfortunately in our society such people are usually laughed at and are made to feel like outcasts. We want to have good posture – to be able to stand up straight and tall and proud. But it is just that attitude of pride that Jesus wants to deal with this morning. He wants to give you a hunched back from bowing in submission to God.
We are Americans and we pride ourselves on our independence. We pride ourselves on not having to bow before any other country or people in the world. We are the wealthiest nation on earth – the most powerful nation on earth – the most progressive nation on earth. Unfortunately that has resulted in our having a bad reputation throughout much of the rest of the world. Why? Because we think that we are better than everyone else and it shows. I went to college in Canada and one of my professors said that any time he traveled overseas he made sure that he wore a lapel pin with the Canadian maple leaf on it so that everyone would know that he wasn’t an American. This wasn’t because he personally had a problem with Americans. It was because in his experience he was treated much better when people realized that he wasn’t an American because they had a bad opinion of Americans. Americans tend to think that they are the best and therefore expect to be treated accordingly. Many who travel overseas are therefore rude and over demanding. We need to be careful of letting our pride go to our heads.
A New England pastor and a rabbi were having a conversation one day over lunch. The N.E. pastor proudly proclaimed, “One of my ancestors signed the Declaration of Independence”. He thought that the rabbi would be very impressed by this. To his chagrin, the rabbi responded, “I understand your pride. One of my ancestors signed the Ten Commandments.”
One of the problems with pride is that there is always going to be someone who can top you. They will run faster, jump higher, win more, be more beautiful, tell a funnier story, receive more applause and go one step farther than you did. Even if no one beats your record in your lifetime, someone eventually will. (Chris Talton/Sermon Central)
The scriptures teach an amazing paradox about what it takes to come out on top. Jesus taught that, “many who are last will be first.” (Mt. 19:30) He also said, “Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant.” (Mt. 20:26) And again He said, “Whoever wants to be first must be your slave.” (Mt. 20:27) These words seem shocking to our ears. We think of greatness as having servants not being a servant. We think we have arrived not when we are serving, but when we are being served. Jesus takes our common sense understanding and turns it on its head. Jesus is showing us that our worldview is upside down. He is teaching us that the true path to greatness lies in humility. The way to victory is through surrender.
Let’s turn to our scripture passage for today and let James address our issues of pride and selfishness as he teaches us to BOW before God in complete surrender.
Beware of the pursuit of pleasure.
1What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? 2You 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. 3When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.
What is the cause of much of our problems today? of our fights and quarrels? The Greek behind “fights and quarrels” was normally used of national warfare. James is not talking about mere petty squabbles here.
a) selfish passions
He identifies the source as being their “desires” that war within them. The word translated “desires” is hedonon from which we get our English word hedonism. The pursuit of pleasure is the overriding desire of their lives. They were hedonists. The problem with the pursuit of pleasure is that you don’t get what you want and if you do get it you find that it doesn’t last or it doesn’t bring the satisfaction that you thought it would. The result is that the pursuit of pleasure is a never ending pursuit that leads people to do all kinds of stupid things to get what they think they want. Listen to these true stories of people doing stupid things in the pursuit of pleasure.
Story #1: "The Ann Arbor News crime column reported that a man walked into a Burger King in Ypisalanti, Michigan at 7:50am, flashed a gun and demanded cash. The clerk turned him down because he said he couldn’t open the cash register without a food order. When the man ordered onion rings, the clerk said they weren’t available for breakfast. The man, frustrated, walked away."
Story #2: "Karen Lee Joachimmi, 20, was arrested in Lake City, Florida for robbery of a Howard Johnson’s motel. She was armed with only an electric chain saw, which was not plugged in."
Story #3: "Three guys decided, late one night, to rob a petrol station. Taking in baseball bats and knives they entered and demanded money from the station clerk. But they weren’t aware of a couple of rather important things: The clerk was an ex-Israeli. The clerk was an ex-Israeli Army officer. The clerk was an ex-Israeli unarmed-combat instructor.
Needless to say they ended up in hospital. For a long time. (No charges were pressed by the petrol station owner, and the police decided that there wasn’t much point following through.)"
Story #4: "When a man attempted to siphon gasoline from a motor home parked on a Seattle street, he got much more than he bargained for. Police arrived at the scene to find an ill man curled up next to a motor home near spilled sewage. A police spokesman said that the man admitted to trying to steal gasoline and plugged his hose into the motor home’s sewage tank by mistake. The owner of the vehicle declined to press charges, saying that it was the best laugh he’d ever had."
Story #5: "Burglars in Larch Barrens, Md., tried to cut through a safe using a Laser Tag gun."
Story #6: "Germany: Oil of Olay no longer turning the trick for her, a woman decided that she would bathe in the milk of a camel (a modern-day Cleopatra). So she stole a camel from the local zoo (where *else* can you find a camel when you need one?) and transported it back to her house – where she realized that the camel’s name was "Otto."
Story #7: "(Location Unknown): A man successfully broke into a bank’s basement through a street-level window, cutting himself up pretty badly in the process. He then realized that (1) he could not get to the money from where he was, (2) he could not climb back out the window through which he had entered, and (3) he was bleeding pretty badly. So he located a phone and dialed "911" for help." (Darren Ethier/Sermon Central)
These people are all examples of people who wanted something, but didn’t get it. They tried to take matters into their own hands and they failed miserably. Beware of the pursuit of pleasure. Then their selfish passions lead to selfish plans.
b) selfish plans
“You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight.”
Many have wrestled with what James meant when he wrote those words. Clearly he is addressing his letter and his comments to the Christian community. Could it be possible that such behavior was actually taking place in the church? Could it be that these Christians were actually attacking and killing one another over their selfish desires? Most commentators believe that “kill” is best understood as hyperbole for hatred. 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.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.” (Mt. 5:21-22) Again Jesus words to us are shocking. He equates hating your brother with killing your brother. He is basically saying that while you may not have committed murder physically you have committed murder spiritually. And it is the spiritual reality that God is most concerned with. Is there someone that you are harboring a secret grudge against? Remember that it is no secret to God!
Not only are they no secret to God, but in all too many cases they get out of control and do lead to actually killing and fighting as James said. Do you remember the story of the Texas cheerleader mom? She wanted her daughter to be a cheerleader so badly that she hired someone to kill another cheerleader so that there would be an open spot on the squad. She reasoned that this other girl was standing in the way of her desire for her daughter to be on the squad. The only thing that she could do was to get rid of the other girl. Then her desires for her daughter could be fulfilled. (Chris Talton/Sermon Central) That is a sad and tragic example of selfish passions out of control. Beware of the pursuit of pleasure.
Another example of just this sort of thing comes to us from the pages of Scripture itself. One night King David couldn’t sleep and so he went out on the roof top where he saw a very beautiful woman bathing. Being attracted to her he sent for her and had her spend the night with him even though she was another man’s wife. Even worse was that her husband was one of David’s soldiers who was away at battle fighting for David and Israel. To David’s chagrin he got this woman named Bathsheba pregnant. So he sent for her husband to come home and give him an update on the war. David’s hope was that while her husband was home he would sleep with his wife and therefore not find it strange when she ended up being pregnant. However, Uriah, her husband, was too honorable. He didn’t think that it would be right for him to enjoy the pleasure of a night at home with his wife while his fellow soldiers were on the battlefield risking their lives. So instead of going home to his wife he slept on the steps of the palace. Since David couldn’t get Uriah to spend the night with his wife David ordered Joab, the commander of the army, to place Uriah in a dangerous position when he returned to battle so that he was sure to be killed. Then when Uriah had been killed David took Bathsheba to be his own wife. If King David – “a man after God’s own heart” – could commit adultery and murder because of his selfish desires for pleasure then anybody can. Beware of the pursuit of pleasure.
c) selfish prayers
Another result of our selfish desires is selfish prayers. “When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.” Can you imagine coming into the presence of the United States of America, right into the Oval Office, just to make a purely selfish request? So why is it that we think nothing of entering into the very presence of Almighty God – right into the Holy of Holies – just to make purely selfish requests from God.
The same Greek word for “spend” is also used in the Parable of the Prodigal Son. The youngest son demanded that he receive his share of the inheritance right away. When he received it he “set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need.” He ended up with a job feeding pigs and he was envious of the pigs because they had more food than he did. “He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.” This simple story should serve as a warning against asking our Heavenly Father for things to satisfy our selfish desires. Beware of the pursuit of pleasure.
Offer your friendship to the Father.
4You 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. 5Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely?
James is being very straightforward here about the fact that when it comes to our relationship with God there are no gray areas. Either you are for God or you are against Him. Either you are His friend or you are His enemy. There is no middle ground. In our modern era of tolerance we don’t like to hear things like this. It sounds so intolerant – so judgmental - so divisive. It was meant to! Because in reality you can’t have it both ways. You can’t live for yourself and live for God at the same time. You can’t follow the world and its ways and follow God at the same time any more that you can walk north and south at the same time. It is simply impossible. Therefore you must choose.
James talks about choosing to be a friend of the world. So this issue is clearly a matter of personal choice. Two options stand before each of us. You can choose to follow God or you can choose to follow the world. You can choose to be a Christian or you can choose to be an atheist, or a Buddhist, or something else. The point is you get to choose. You and you alone are responsible and so James wants you to be aware of the consequences of your choice.
James says that to claim to follow God while trying to following the world at the same time is to commit spiritual adultery. In writing to those who were doing this he calls them “adulterous people.” The literal Greek is in the feminine and means ‘adulteresses.’ You see in the Old Testament God’s people were referred to as the wife of God. “I was a husband to them, declares the Lord.” (Jer. 31:32). Therefore when the people of Israel turned to other god’s they were rightly accused of committing adultery. To illustrate this adultery to the people God instructed the prophet Hosea to take for himself an adulterous wife. “When the Lord began to speak through Hosea, the Lord said to him, ‘Go, take to yourself an adulterous wife and children of unfaithfulness, because the land is guilty of the vilest adultery in departing from the Lord.’” (Hosea 1:2) The land is a reference to the land of Israel and therefore to the people of Israel. By cheating on God with their idols they were “guilty of the vilest adultery.”
In the New Testament we find the people of God referred to as the bride of Christ. “Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready.” (Rev. 19:7) In Ephesians 5 Paul is talking about the relationship between a husband and a wife when he says, “This is a profound mystery – but I am talking about Christ and the church.” (Eph. 5:32) Christ is the husband and the church is His bride. So when someone in the church chooses to follow the ways of this world they are choosing to cheat on their husband and are therefore “guilty of the vilest adultery” – cheating on the One who died for them. Don’t make that same mistake – offer your friendship to the Father.
The next verse shows us that this act of adultery by His bride makes God jealous. Verse five is a difficult passage to translate and so it has been rendered in different ways. The way the NIV has translated this verse it would mean that the spirit that God caused to live within mankind when he created us because of the Fall now envies intensely – strongly desires other things – which leads us to commit adultery. But I want to call your attention to an alternate rendering that the NIV gives in a footnote. This would have the verse read: “Or do you think Scripture says without reason that God jealously longs for the spirit that he made to live in us.” This rendering fits well with the context as well. The people have committed acts of spiritual adultery and this has made God jealous. If you think that it sounds beneath God to be jealous, then listen to His own words in the Ten Commandments. “You shall not make for yourself an idol … You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God.” (Exodus 20:4-5) When our spirits begin to worship other gods it makes God jealous. So offer your friendship to the Father.
You may argue that you have never worshiped an idol. Though we do not face a pantheon of false gods like the Israelites did, we face pressures from a pantheon of false values – materialism, love of leisure, sensuality, worship of self, security, and many others. Idols may be something that we can’t relate to unless we include life goals that revolve around something other than God Himself. What is the object of our affection, our efforts, and our attention? Where does the majority of our time go? On what do we spend the greatest amount of our resources? When you begin to look at it like this – are you guilty of cheating on Christ? Offer your friendship to the Father.
In The Wounded Healer, Henri Nouwen retells a tale from ancient India: Four royal brothers decided each to master a special ability. Time went by, and the brothers met to reveal what they had learned.
“I have mastered a science,” said the first, “by which I can take but a bone of some creature and create the flesh that goes with it.”
“I,” said the second, “know how to grow that creature’s skin and hair if there is flesh on its bones.”
The third said, “I am able to create its limbs if I have flesh, the skin, and the hair.”
“And I,” concluded the fourth, “know how to give life to that creature if its form is complete.”
Thereupon the brothers went into the jungle to find a bone so they could demonstrate their specialties. As fate would have it, the bone they found was a lion’s. One added flesh to the bone, the second grew hide and hair, the third completed it with matching limbs, and the fourth gave the lion life.
Shaking its mane, the ferocious beast arose and jumped on his creators. He killed them all and vanished contentedly into the jungle.
We too have the capacity to create what can devour us. Goals and dreams can consume us. Possessions and property can turn and destroy us. The gods of our own creation will turn against us and become the source of our destruction. So choose today to offer your friendship to the Father.
Win the war by surrendering.
6But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” 7Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.”
Yet another paradox – the way to victory is through surrender. The world views surrender as defeat, but James says that it is the only way we can receive God’s grace. If we choose to stand tall in pride, God will be opposed to us – he will be our enemy. But if we will bow in surrender we will receive his grace to overcome our spiritual unfaithfulness.
The logical response to this quotation from Proverbs 3:34 is to submit ourselves to God as James says in verse seven. The word that James uses for “submit” is a military term. It literally means “to rank under; to be of a lower rank.” This means that we must recognize God’s higher ranking – that He is our superior officer – our commanding officer. Such being the case it is our duty to submit to His authority. This submission is not obedience, but the surrender of one’s will that leads to obedience.
In view of this surrender James issues ten commands each in the aorist imperative which calls for an immediate response. When your commanding officer speaks you don’t delay you obey. The order of the first two commands listed in verse seven is important. First, you must submit to God for only then can you resist the devil. There are two many who are trying to resist the devil without fully submitting their lives to God. There are areas of their lives that they are holding back and then they wonder why they aren’t experiencing victory in their lives. The problem is that if you try to resist the devil without first surrendering to God you will find that Satan won’t flee. If you haven’t surrendered to God then Satan has nothing to be afraid of. You need to understand that Satan isn’t afraid of you alone. You don’t intimidate him one little bit. It is the omnipotence of your commanding officer that frightens him away. If God is your commanding officer, the text says that the devil “will flee from you.” Not might flee, but “will flee.” Victory is assured through surrender.
Alexander the Great and a small company of soldiers approached a strongly fortified walled city. Alexander, standing outside the walls, raised his voice and demanded to see the king. When the king arrived, Alexander insisted that the king surrender the city and its inhabitants to Alexander and his little band of fighting men. The king laughed, “Why should I surrender to you? You can’t do us any harm!” But Alexander offered to give the king a demonstration. He ordered his men to line up single file and start marching. He marched them straight toward a sheer cliff. The townspeople gathered on the wall and watched in shocked silence as, one by one, Alexander’s soldiers marched without hesitation right off the cliff to their deaths! After ten soldiers died, Alexander ordered the rest of the men to return to his side. The townspeople and the king immediately surrendered to Alexander the Great. They realized that if a few men were actually willing to commit suicide at the command of this dynamic leader, then nothing could stop his eventual victory. (David Yarbrough/Sermon Central)
Have you submitted yourself to the orders of your commanding officer as completely as these soldiers were to the orders of Alexander the Great? Just as the king and the towns people were frightened into surrendering by this demonstration of total submission so is Satan frightened. When he sees a man or a woman who has completely submitted themselves to the Lordship of Jesus Christ he turns and flees for his life. But as long as Satan sees signs of rebellion in you he knows that there is hope that he can turn you to his side and so he attacks in full force.
I am not going to take the time to walk through each of the next commands in great detail. However, I will give you a brief overview. In verse eight we are commanded to draw near to God. If you have wandered away from God by committing acts of spiritual adultery, God wants you to come back to Him this morning. He hasn’t written you off or given up on you. He loves you still and He wants you back.
As you draw near to God by an act of faith in His Son Jesus Christ your hands will be washed and your heart made pure. The hands refer to the acts of sin that we have committed and the heart to the inward state from which those acts have come. By faith you will be made clean inside and out.
The commands of verse nine all deal with the issue of repentance. The word for “grieve” literally means to be miserable or to be wretched. There is a huge difference between feeling bad that you got caught doing something wrong and truly grieving over what you have done. If you are truly grieving you will mourn and wail, both of which indicate passionate grieving that cannot be hidden or suppressed. The command to change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom has been mistaken by some as meaning that this is the way that Christians should normally conduct themselves. If met some Christians who basically believe that it is wrong for Christians to laugh and have a good time. But these words are not meant to give instructions as to the usual characteristics of the Christian. Only the occasion of straying into spiritual adultery warrants this type of repentance. If you have strayed away from God, you need to repent of your sin and draw near to God by faith this morning.
Conclusion:
James concludes with a summary command. “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.” Usually we think of ascending to greatness, but Bill Hybels wrote a book titled Descending Into Greatness. That is God’s method. It may be the opposite of what the world thinks, but it is a widespread scriptural principle.
· “For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” Mt. 23:12; see also Lk. 14:11 & 18:14
· “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant … he humbled himself … Therefore God exalted him to the highest place.” Php. 2:5-9
· “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.” 1 Peter 5:6
Listen to these words from The Beatitudes. “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.” (Mt. 5:3-5) They way to conquer is through submission. The way to victory is through surrender. They way to exaltation is through humiliation.
D. L. Moody once told the fable of an eagle who was so proud of how well he flew that he couldn’t stand it when he found another eagle that could fly better. One day the eagle saw a sportsman with a bow and arrow and said to him, "I wish you would bring down that other eagle up there." The man said he would if he had some feathers for his arrow. So the jealous eagle pulled one out of his wing. The arrow was shot, but it didn’t quite reach the rival bird because he was flying too high. The first eagle pulled out another feather, then another as the sportsman continued to shoot – until he had lost so many feathers that he himself could no longer fly. The archer took advantage of the situation, turned around, and killed the now flightless bird. Pride will not only cripple our ability to enjoy what we have, but it will also ultimately destroy us. Are you willing to humble yourself and develop a hunched back from bowing in submission to God? If so then (1) Beware of the pursuit of pleasure, (2) Offer your friendship to the Father, and (3) Win the war by surrendering.
Please email me if you use this sermon or a revision of it. Thank you!
steveamanda8297@hotmail.com
