Growing by Changing Our Desires
The church was facing diverse trials
James 1:2 - Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials…
These trials included problems in their personal relationships
James 1:19 - This you know, my beloved brethren. But everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger…
James 1:26 - If anyone thinks himself to be religious, and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this man’s religion is worthless.
James 2:1 - My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism.
James 3:6 - And the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity; the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell.
James 4:11 - Do not speak against one another, brethren.
James 5:9 - Do not complain, brethren, against one another…
John 17: 22-23 - The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.
3 three exhortations to help us change our desires and preserve unity in our family, church, and neighbor relationships
I. Realize the Cause of Conflict—My Pleasures, “My Life for Me” (4:1-3)
A. “Quarrels and conflicts” = hostility in relationships. This term can include hostile relationships between nations (i.e. “war” as in KJV), v. 1.
B. Hostilities in relationships that can in the extreme lead to “murder” v. 2
C. The hostilities come from your “pleasures” (v. 1, 3), “lust/envy” (v. 2)
D. We learn from other places of Scripture (Matt 6:21; 15:15–20) those “pleasures in your members” are the motivations of your heart which drive your behavior.
Matthew 6:21 - …for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
If you desire
To study more about the heart, please consider the following resources
Gospel Treason by Brad Bigney
The Heart of Change video series by Pastor Brent Aucoin (free at www.faithlafayette.org/heart)
II. Be Sobered by the Description of Living for My Pleasurers—"Spiritual Adultery & Pride” (James 4:4-6)
A. Spiritual “Adultery” (v. 4–5)
James 4:4-5 - You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose: “He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us”?
B. “Proud” (v. 6)
“God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
You have conflict with neighbors because you have conflict with God in your pride and as “spiritual adulterers.”
For the one principle of hell is—I am my own. I am my own king and my own subject. I am the centre from which go out my thoughts; I am the object and end of my thoughts; back upon me as the alpha and omega of life, my thoughts return.
My own glory is, and ought to be, my chief care; my ambition, to gather the regards of men to the one centre, myself.
My pleasure is my pleasure.
My kingdom is—as many as I can bring to acknowledge my greatness over them.
My judgment is the faultless rule of things.
My right is—what I desire.
The more I am all in all to myself, the greater I am.
The less I acknowledge debt or obligation to another; the more I close my eyes to the fact that I did not make myself; the more self-sufficing I feel or imagine myself—the greater I am.
I will be free with the freedom that consists in doing whatever I am inclined to do, from whatever quarter may come the inclination. To do my own will so long as I feel anything to be my will, is to be free, is to live. George McDonald (Unspoken Sermons; http://www.online-literature.com/george-macdonald/unspoken-sermons/30/)
III. Repent by Embracing the Cure for Conflict—A New Pleasure—“My life for you”, “I Am Not My Own” (James 4:7–10)
A. Submitting to God (v. 7)—In submission to God we abandoned the principle of “my life for me”—living for my own hedonistic pleasures
B. Resisting the Devil (v. 7)—The devil is the epitome of “my life for me” and “I am my own.” (cf. James 3:14-15)
James 3:14-15 - But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth. This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic.
C. Drawing near to God (v. 8)—learn the “choreography of Heaven” in the Gospel, “my life for you.”
D. Repenting (vv. 8-9)
James 4:8-9 - …Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be miserable and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom.
“My life for yours: it may mean three seconds of my time to redeem some thoughtless bit of self-indulgence on the part of someone else, or it may mean, or did mean, Golgotha, where My Life for Yours was supremely dramatized and entails our eternal joy.” George McDonald, The Night Far Spent, 129
In 2012 Barack Obama in a campaign speech in Roanoke Virginia stated, “If you got a business—you didn’t build that.” He went on to detail the resources, like government, educators, mentors that stood behind every successful individual.
Not surprisingly, conservatives responded to that statement with great incredulity and fierce rebuttal.
For conservatives it was as if Barack Obama was denying the efforts and labors of an individual that went into building a business and it was as if Barack Obama was exalting the role of government to the extreme.
Certainly, the lens of politics and power distort everything—even a stumbling upon a grain a truth that we could all learn from… a question that probes “Did you really build that?”
Now, my goal here this morning is not to talk politics nor is it to say Barack Obama was right or wrong in that statement or the way in which he offered that statement.
However, consider the question “did you build that?”
Let me speak to you this morning about a universal principle of building in any endeavor.
Consider if you will what it takes for a baby to be birthed and reared….
Let me ask you…do you remember anything from conception to three years old?
Do you?
No!
Guess who does remember pretty much everything about you from conception to three years old….
Your parents…
From conception to 3 years old, you were conscious of nothing, and your parents were conscious of everything regarding your existence.
- Their life revolved around you.
- They gave everything for you.
- You gave nothing to your parents…your parents gave everything to you.
Did you go through the pain of child birth?
No?
Who did? Parents!
Did you go through the toil of working to earn the money to pay for the Dr.s’ bills from your birth?
No.
Who did? Your parents did.
- Who was there giving you medicine when you were sick?
- Who was there in the night when you cried?
- Who continued to work, loose sleep, spend money, on you so that you might exist?
- You realize, you only exist because some gave of their life for you….
I suppose I could ask…did you build your own life then….?
Over the last five years, both of my parents have died.
I have had time to reflect on what it means to be without them.
And my mind keeps going back to all the sacrifices they made for me to be where I am today.
Thomas Howard in the book, The Night Far Spent states that the “choreography of heaven” is “My life for yours.”
Let that sink in for a moment…the principle of heaven is “My life for yours.”
That means God’s operative principle is “My life for yours” and the way He designed us the universe to operate is for humans to operate that way as well.
It is so integral to the beautiful function of life that God made it a apart of our origins—the birthing and growing of a life….. a life can not grow and live without someone else living out “my life for yours.”
With that in mind, please turn to James 4
We are continuing our fall series today on Growth Essentials from the Book of James.
Today we are discussing Growing by Changing Our Desires
As Pastor Viars has carefully explained, the book of James is probably the first NT book written. We can date it about 20 years after the resurrection of Jesus Christ when the newly formed church was only about 20 years old.
The church was still primarily Jewish with a growing Gentile population.
Perhaps the geographical reach of the church had gone from Jerusalem south to Egypt or north to modern day Turkey.
And within that radius there were single communities of believers in some cities
- Not 100 churches in every city!!!
Again there were only single communities of believers in some cities probably in a 300 mile radius of Jerusalem
- Nobody on this continent we reside in today had heard anything about Jesus
- Nobody in what is now the UK, China, Russia, or Australia had heard anything about Jesus.
Those 20-year-old growing communities with increasing Gentile populations were past he honeymoon stage of their origins
The beautiful picture of the newborn church in Acts 2 where everybody was getting along had entered a new phase where the newborns had to be taught on how to preserve the unity of the faith.
There were problems in the church.
- It was not as if the Gospel believed resulted in perfect saints now.
- It was true that the Gospel believed will perfect the true saints over time….
But over time means problems now….
We have seen that with James’s instruction
The church was facing diverse trials
- 1:2 Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials
These trials included problems in their personal relationships
….members who were quick to offer their opinions
- 1:19 This you know, my beloved brethren. But everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger;
These trials included church members who were self-righteous
- 1: 26 If anyone thinks himself to be religious, and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this man’s religion is worthless.
These trials included church members who were showing favoritism
- 2:1 My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism.
These trials included church members who were using their speech in destructive ways
- 3:6 And the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity; the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell.
- 4:11 Do not speak against one another, brethren.
These trials included church members who were complaining against one another.
- 5:9 Do not complain, brethren, against one another
James was giving instructions to these communities to help them be unified because the primary witness to the world that Jesus prayed for was “UNITY.”
Remember, Jesus the night before He went to the cross prayed for his followers to have a supernatural unity which would be a witness to the world:
- John 17: 22 “The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; 23 I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.
In fact Jesus says the “glory” the Father gave Him was to be true of his followers….
“Glory” which in context means the beautiful harmony in the Trinity between Father, Son and Spirit was to be true of Jesus’ followers…. “I have given to them that they may be one just as we are one….”
James was concerned about some problems, the conflicts among confessors of the Gospel that would destroy the unity of these communities and hinder their witness to the world. Their and God’s “glory”
Now let me ask you….look at the relationships in your life….are they characterized by the “Glory” of God meaning a beautiful harmony
Can I say, “The choreography of heaven”
- With your spouse
- With your children
- With church members
- And as much as possible with unbelievers….
If your answer to this question is “no”
Today James gives us the answer why and how to correct it.
Let’s pick up reading in 3:16 which Pastor Viars spoke to us about last week
16 For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing.17But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy.
18 And the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.
Notice the emphases on disorder and in contrast those who “make peace”
Here is our primary text..
4:1What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members?2 You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. 3You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.4 You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose: “He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us”?6But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, “God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”7Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.8Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.9Be miserable and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom.10Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you. 11 Do not speak against one another, brethren. …
James gives three exhortations to help us change our desires and preserve unity in your family, church, and neighbor relationships. (The choreography of heaven)
I. Realize the Cause of Conflict—My Pleasures, “My Life for Me” (4:1-3)
James uses intense terminology in this text to describe the problem
A. “Quarrels and conflicts” = hostility in relationships. This term can include hostile relationships between nations (i.e. “war” as in KJV), v. 1.
B. Hostilities in relationships that can in the extreme lead to “murder” v. 2
Now, I don’t think there was literal “murder” in the churches to which James was speaking.
James is describing the overarching pattern of the history of mankind since the first son in humanity, Cain, killed his brother Abel.
Since then, mankind has a sad history of hostile relationship with his fellow human, which has resulted in millennia of bloodshed.
And, again, the moment you become a Christian by believing the Gospel, you are not perfected where you never struggle with
Anger
Bitterness
Bad thoughts against another
However, the Gospel regularly believed, perfects you over time until the day you see Jesus….we will see how a little later
So, right now, please be thinking about the following:
Is there hostility between you and your spouse in any fashion?
Is there strife between you and your children in any way?
Is there an ongoing dispute between you and any church member?
Is there ongoing bitterness between you and any boss/co-worker
As you look our nation and world you cannot help but see hostility between
- Whites and non-whites
- Rich and Poor
- Conservatives/Liberals
- Republicans/Democrats
- The professional class and the blue-collar working class
- The coastal regions and the heartlands
- The USA and China
- The USA and Russia
There is conflict everywhere and it is in your home
Why is there conflict everywhere….because there are people everywhere!
And what is wrong with the people everywhere?
James answers that question
C. The hostilities come from your “pleasures” (v. 1, 3), “lust/envy” (v. 2)
You will recognize the Greek word James uses here to describe the source of your behavior toward others.
The Greek word is “Hey doe nay” ἡδονή
From which we get the English translation of Hedonism
The other two words James uses, “Lust/envy” convey the same concept—your intense desire for the pleasures and treasures of this earth.
What this means is we have a world of humanity living for their own pleasure….
D. We learn from other places of Scripture (Matt 6:21; 15:15–20) those “pleasures in your members” are the motivations of your heart which drive your behavior.
- Matthew 6:21 for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Here is what that means….
- Look for what a person treasures
- Look for what a person delights in
- Look for what a person finds pleasures in
And when you find it…guess what?.... that is when you have found the essence of his heart…where your treasure is…there is your heart….
If you desire
To study more about the heart, please consider the following resources
- Gospel Treason by Brad Bigney
- The Heart of Change video series by Pastor Brent Aucoin (free at www.faithlafayette.org/heart)
Now James is saying that the breakdown of relationships in any sphere occur because of one thing!!!
You are living for your pleasures…you are living in hedonism
You are living by the earthly principle “My life for me” in contrast to the choreography of heaven “My life for you…
And as often as our minds are contemplating about people we have the potential to meditate on my pleasures in thousands of ways everyday.
- I get up and think, how can I have an easy time at work today, do the least amount of work
- I think in my drive to work, all of these cars should be anticipating my every move the cars should simple part for me the way the red sea was parted
- A mom thinking in the morning, how can I avoid the children’s parasitic behavior today in sucking the life out of me!!
- A husband coming home thinking, now is my time to think about me
- A wife seeing her husband come home and thinking, now its his turn and its my time to relax
- A church member coming to church thinking what’s in this for me, who is going to talk to me today.
- A church member saying, serving is not my thing
- A church member saying, the pastor doesn’t preach in the way that is best for me”
- Or a pastor saying, “I’m tired a being patient with sheep that go astray
James exhorts us to look at the cause of our community breakdowns—“My life for me”
Or, as someone has said, “I do what I do because I want what I want. “My life for me!”
1) Not because I have a genetic tendency to be like my parents
2) Not because I have some biological condition
3) Not because I have some kind of dysfunctional family
4) Not because I have low self-esteem
5) Not because I have ______________
Second James exhorts us to be sobered by calling this living for my pleasures, “My life for me” behavior Spiritual Adultery and Pride
II. Be Sobered by the Description of Living for My Pleasurers—"Spiritual Adultery & Pride” (James 4:4–6)
A. Spiritual “Adultery” (v. 4–5)
James says,
4 You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose: “He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us”?
Adulterers—James uses the terminology of “adultery” here.
Why is that?
Think through what marital adultery is.
In marriage, a spouse makes a covenant vow saying “My life for yours” and “My pleasure will only be in your pleasure”
When a spouse commits adultery the spouse is saying, “I don’t care about my commitment, I’m going with my life for me and I will find sexual pleasure however I desire”—that is adultery
Spiritual adultery, likewise, is us saying to God, “My life for me and I will find pleasure outside of my relationship with you God”
Throughout the OT God continually portrays His relationship with His people as a marriage covenant and that is why when we seek our pleasures in the things of this earth it is called “spiritual adultery”
One of the most interestingly strange books in the OT is the book of Hosea where God asks the prophet Hosea to go and marry a prostitute.
God was embedding in the prophets life a picture of how His people were treating Him.
God chose, rescued, and unconditionally loved his bride, His people. But His bride, like a prostitute delighted in other husbands….
This is exactly what is happening with I live based upon My desires my life for me!!!
Spiritual Adultery!
If you look at the commentaries and translations on verse 5 the underlying Greek text is notoriously difficult to nail down precisely
And there are varied and different translations.
But verse five is also probably picking up on the idea that God loves his people like a husband loves his wife.
God is a husband who is jealous for the love of His people.
James then gives a broad summary of those who create the conflict in community by characterizing them as….
B. “Proud” (v. 6)
“God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
This attitude of “My pleasures” “My life for me,” God characterizes as “proud”
Our former senior pastor, Pastor Goode would say, the reason you are at war with your neighbor in these horizontal relationships is because you are a war with God in your vertical relationship.
You have conflict with neighbors because you have conflict with God in your pride and as “spiritual adulterers.”
There is only one God… one everlasting kingdom, and you and your kingdom are not it.
Pastor Viars and our team of pastors will continue to develop the concept of pride and humility in weeks to come.
We also continue to discuss Pride and Humility in our Men of Faith Sessions.
For now, let me just finish this section with an insightful quote
George McDonald was C.S. Lewis’ mentor
C.S. Lewis would later write a book called Mere Christianity which contains one of the most significant descriptions of pride.
Also in C.S. Lewis book Surprised by Joy Lewis details his own conversion. And he prefaces that chapter with a quote by George McDonald “the one principle of hell is ‘I am my own’”
C.S. Lewis had to come to the conviction that the pathway to Hell is “I am my own and my life for me.”
I would like to read George McDonald’s full quote
For the one principle of hell is—‘I am my own. I am my own king and my own subject. I am the center from which go out my thoughts; I am the object and end of my thoughts; back upon me as the alpha and omega of life, my thoughts return.
My own glory is, and ought to be, my chief care; my ambition, to gather the regards of men to the one center, myself.
My pleasure is my pleasure.
My kingdom is—as many as I can bring to acknowledge my greatness over them.
My judgment is the faultless rule of things.
My right is—what I desire.
The more I am all in all to myself, the greater I am.
The less I acknowledge debt or obligation to another; the more I close my eyes to the fact that I did not make myself; the more self-sufficing I feel or imagine myself—the greater I am.
(do you hear conservative echoes of “Don’t tell me I didn’t build that, I most certainly did…..)
I will be free with the freedom that consists in doing whatever I am inclined to do, from whatever quarter may come the inclination. To do my own will so long as I feel anything to be my will, is to be free, is to live. George McDonald (Unspoken Sermons; http://www.online-literature.com/george-macdonald/unspoken-sermons/30/)
If you live by that principle now “My pleasures”, you end up lonely, isolated, at the top of your kingdom of one.
And you wonder how you end up alone with broken relationships in your wake?
“My pleasures” “I am my own.” Lead to aloneness
Hell will be filled with lonely people who lived by the maximum “My life for me, I am my own”
James does not break us down without giving us an exhortation and solution on how to have true community, true relationships, true unity.
James third exhortation to change our desires and preserve beautiful, glorious unity in your family, church, and community relationships. (The choreography of heaven)
Is…
III. Repent by Embracing the Cure for Conflict—A New Pleasure—“My life for you”, “I am not my own” (James 4:7–10)
If the problem is “My pleasures” “My life for me!”
What is the solution?
Learning to find a new pleasures—the choreography of heaven!!!—“My life for you”
The changing of our desires includes….
A. Submitting to God (v. 7)—In submission to God we abandoned the principle of “my life for me”—living for my own hedonistic pleasures
B. Resisting the Devil (v. 7)—The devil is the epitome of “my life for me” and “I am my own.” (cf. James 3:14-15)
Last week we all heard P. Viars speak about James 3:14-15
James 3: 14 But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth.15 This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic.
You may have recoiled a bit when Steve quoted the word of God saying this behavior is demonic…
But James is doubling down on that and going one step more…Its not only demonic but it is from Satan…”My Life for me” is Satanic.
James says resist the devil and he will flee
Then James says….
C. Drawing near to God (v. 8)—learn the “choreography of Heaven” in the Gospel, “my life for you.”
Draw Near to God…Do you understand when you turn your gaze away from self for a moment and to God you begin to see a different principle… in operation
What do you see when you draw near to God…you see that He has drawn near to you
God did not live out the principle “my life for me!”
How is that you say….???
For God so loved the world (you)….that He gave...His son….for you
And how did his Son live?
My life for me?
I am my own? No!
How did He live—My life for you…and I am not my own, it is not my will being done but Thy will be done….
In George McDonald’s words Jesus Christ dealt the death blow to Hell by not living by the principle of Hell, I am my own…But by living “Thy will be done.”
In the end as C.S. Lewis says, there are only two kinds of people those who say to God “Thy will be done” and those to whom God says, “Your will be done”
Furthermore, That Son on the cross took the penalty of your living in a way that says, “I am my own”---
Do you realize that Jesus never lived in a “My life for me way” “Living for My pleasures” and never was the source of broken relationships….….
Jesus was the only one who ever lived always, my life for you and Thy will be done, but he took the penalty of our selfish way of living for us.
Tim Keller says, on the cross Jesus Christ took the ultimate end, of your “I am my own way of living” by experiencing “cosmic loneliness” on the cross when the Father forsook the Son, and all of Jesus’ disciples forsook him also.
When you draw near to God you see that He has drawn near to you in the choreograph of heaven…My life for you
The choreograph of heaven—the principle that gives life is My life for you and that is exactly what God has done in Jesus Christ
This is the only way of life…you see it physical birth…and it is the same in spiritual new birth to heal life
This is the most beautiful principle of heaven “My life for you”
When we see this…and you have been united from a broken relationship to God through Christ’s “I am not my own” then you are ready to repent of our satanic “My life for me
D. Repenting (vv. 8-9)
8…Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.9Be miserable and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom.
[Gospel appeal]
[Develop application of numerous ways daily we get up and remember Christ lived out “my life for you” so how will we live “My life for you” as your greatest desire and bring healing life to others…as the choreography of heaven]
[Encouragement to the congregation that Faith Church congregation tends to live “My life for yours” and that is why we have a marvelous unity here]
“My life for yours: it may mean three seconds of my time to redeem some thoughtless bit of self-indulgence on the part of someone else, or it may mean, or did mean, Golgotha, where My Life for Yours was supremely dramatized and entails our eternal joy.” George McDonald, The Night Far Spent, 129