What Causes Fights And Quarrels? Series

INTRO.- ILL.- One Navy Seal Obituary: Aaron Carson Vaughn. Killed in that helicopter crash, Afghanistan, August 6,2011. Aaron Carson Vaughn was a man of deep faith, insisting to his family that he didn’t fear his job as a Navy SEAL "because he knew where he was going" when he died.

"Aaron was a Christian and he’s with Jesus today," Geneva Vaughn of Union City, Tenn., told The Associated Press on Saturday. "He told us when we saw him last November that he wasn’t afraid ... he said, `Granny, don’t worry about me.’"

"He was a tough warrior, but he was a gentle man."

Geneva Vaughn said her grandson, 30, joined the SEALS straight out of boot camp and was already a decorated fighter when he was asked by the Navy to return stateside to become an instructor. But he applied to SEAL Team 6 after two years, earning his way onto the squad in 2010.

He asked the military to return him to combat and shipped out just six weeks before he was killed, Vaughn said.

"He was doing what he loved to do and he was a true warrior," Geneva Vaughn said.

Aaron Vaughn leaves behind his wife, Kimberly, and two children, 2-year-old son Reagan and 2-month-old daughter Chamberlyn.

"They will take away his love for Christ. They will take his dream and his love for the country, and they will know what an amazing man he is," Kimberly said about the children in an interview on NBC’s "Today" show Monday.

What a shame that young man was killed in war. What a shame that wars even exist but they always will because of sin and evil in this world.

When we think of the military we think of fighting and war. That’s what soldiers sometimes have to do.

But what about the rest of us? Do we have to fight and quarrel with people on a daily basis? We don’t have to do but some people do. It seems that some people are always looking for trouble or they may think they are always right about everything so it’s easy for them to get into a quarrel with others.

Our text is about fighting and quarreling. Why do people fight and quarrel? Lots of reasons and our text gives us more insight about quarreling.

PROP.- What causes fights and quarrels?

1- Wrong desires

2- Wrong directions

3- Wrong motives

I. WRONG DESIRES

1 What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you?

To desire something is to crave something or want something. And sometimes our cravings are evil.

Mark 4:19 Jesus said: “The worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful.”

Romans 7:8 “But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire.”

Romans 8:5 “Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.”

Romans 13:14 “Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.”

Galatians 5:16 “So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.”

What things do you desire in this world? Oh wow! We could make a very long list, could we not?

ILL.- Marilyn Monroe, the blonde bombshell of ages past, is quoted as saying, “I don’t want to make money, I just want to be wonderful."

I think we all know that she was a messed up woman. To be wonderful or to appear wonderful to all people is a matter of human pride. And many people love limelight of life!

ILL.- It was said that Theodore Roosevelt was sometimes known as Roosevelt the First. He was a President who knew his value; he did not cheapen himself by underestimating it. “Father always had to be the center of attention,” said one of his children. “When he went to a wedding, he wanted to be the bride. When he went to a funeral, he was sorry that he couldn’t be the corpse.” HOW CRAZY IS THAT!

Proverbs 16:18 “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.”

I Peter 5:5 “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

Most people prefer to have more money.

ILL.- Will Rogers said: "Too many people spend money they haven’t earned, to buy things they don’t want, to impress people they don’t like."

I’m sure this is true for some people. It’s called “keeping up with the Joneses.” Often in life we want the things that other people have, perhaps thinking this will make us happy.