August 19, 2018
Evening Service

This morning in the first part of chapter 3 James warned us to be careful when desiring to be a teacher because it comes with a stricter judgment as we are held accountable that we teach only the Word.  He then began to remind us of what a large problems our small tongue can bring us.  We found our speech is directly connected to our heart and sometimes it is there that the problem truly lays.  We all need to be very aware of the power our words hold and strive to make our words ones that build people up not tear them down.  James now returns to idea of faith being lived out in our actions and not by our words alone.  He informs us that faith done right will produce wisdom and humility.

James 3:13-16 Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show his works by his good conduct with meekness of wisdom.  (14)  But if you have bitter envy and self- seeking in your hearts, do not glory and lie against the truth.  (15)  This is not the wisdom coming down from above, but is earthly, sensual, and demonic.  (16)  For where envying and strife are, there is confusion and every foul deed.

·        James again returns to wisdom (skills for living and applying God’s Word) and states that our wisdom will manifest itself in our conduct.  True wisdom can be measured by a person’s character.  Character is put on display by the attitudes we have.  Bitter envy and self-seeking are inspired by Satan.  It is easy to get drawn into the wrong desires by the pressures of society.  “It is all about me, go for it, and you only live once,” can lead us to be drawn to greed, pride and competing with the Jones’.  These lead only to confusion and disorder in our lives.  There is no contentment in that lifestyle.  The only answer to “How much is enough” is “a little more than I have.”  This is worldly wisdom and not form God.

 

 James 3:17-18  But the wisdom that is from above is first truly pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.  (18)  And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

·        God’s wisdom displayed in our character looks more like this; pure, peaceable, gentle, humble, full of mercy and good works without partiality or hypocrisy.  These are attitudes that bring power to our words as we share our testimony of what Christ has done for us.  Jesus said this in the Sermon on the Mount:

Matthew 5:9 Blessed are the peacemakers! For they shall be called the sons of God.

·        As we display these God like attitudes we are simply reflecting the attitudes or our Father in heaven.  These attitudes bring peace, contentment, order and even a sense of purpose to our lives.  These things manifested in our lives are priceless.  It goes beyond the fact that we are just seeking to do good works but it becomes who we are; children of God.  Our character reflects our family genes!

·        He now returns to the idea of the life of conflict and disorder.

 

James 4:1-5  From where do wars and fightings among you come? Is it not from this, from your lusts which war in your members?  (2)  You desire, and do not have. You murder, and are jealous, and cannot obtain. You fight and war, yet you have not because you ask not.  (3)  You ask and receive not, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it upon your lusts.  (4)  Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever desires to be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.  (5)  Do you think that the Scripture says in vain, The spirit that dwells in us yearns to envy?

·        These troubles come from the evil desires battling inside of us.  We seek worldly pleasures and we want more money, stuff, prestige, and glory. When we don’t get what we want we fight until we attain it.  We even include these things in our prayers even demanding that God provide us our wants and desires even if they go against all we are taught as Jesus followers. Our prayer life may sound more like our Christmas list for Santa than a conversation with our Creator and Savior.  We pray and ask God that “our will be done.”  This is not how God designed our lives to be.  This is the chaos that Satan desires to bring into our lives.  There is no joy, happiness or peace here only conflict and discontent.  But God has a better way; and James explains it very well.

 

James 4:6-10 But He gives more grace. Therefore He says, “God resists the proud, but He gives grace to the humble.”  (7)  Therefore submit yourselves 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, sinners; and purify your hearts, double-minded ones.  (9)  Be afflicted, and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to heaviness.  (10)  Be humbled before the Lord, and He will lift you up.

·        The process begins with grace; God’s unmerited favor.  We don’t deserve a second chance at a better life or a chance to start over but God offers it anyway.  He offers our sins to be forgiven and a close personal relationship with Him by accepting Jesus as our Savior.  We must believe with our heart and confess with our mouth that He is Lord and accept His gift with an attitude of humility.  What does that look like?

·        Submit ourselves to Him.  We yield our will to His by committing control of our lives totally over to Him.  This begins with a repentant attitude where we are sorry for the mess we have made of our lives and desire Him to clean it up for us.  We choose to follow Him even if He leads us down a path we would not choose for ourselves.  He is the Potter and we are the clay.

·        Resist the devil by not allowing him to tempt and entice us with the things of this world.  This is an active and ongoing fight that we are determined to win with the help of the Holy Spirit.  Jesus rebuked the devil by quoting scripture, and we can too.  The promise is as we resist, the devil will flee.

·        Draw near to God.  We diligently seek a closer relationship with Him through a life of prayer, Bible study and obedience.  This attitude is rewarded as we take a step towards Him, He promises to step towards us.  He desires us to seek Him by taking the first step.  We are commanded to ask, seek and knock and He promise to answer our prayers, be found when we need Him and to open the way for us to go.

·        Cleanse our hands.  Work to remove sin and sinful attitudes from our lives living in such a way that pleases our Lord.  Repentance plays a part in this as well as we confess our sins to God and ask for forgiveness from them.  This is a process that we walk through working to remove the sin in our lives and replacing it with purity and righteousness.   

·        Be afflicted mourn and weep.  This again is a part of the repentance process.  We need to be truly sorry for the sin we have in our lives.  As David said, we realize that it is God that we sin against when we fall to temptations and our failure should hurt us.  It is in our brokenness that God begins to rebuild us.

·        Be humbled and He will lift you up.  Humility is vital in our walk with the Lord.  Humility shows that we recognize that our worth comes from God alone.  We humbly yield ourselves to His will for our lives.  Jesus said “whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.” (Mark 8:35)  By surrendering we gain victory.

 

This is the path that leads to a life of that God has planned for us.  It is a life that matters and is filled with peace, joy and contentment.  It is a life with order and purpose as we accept to play our small part in the plan our Lord has for His kingdom. 

 

In summary it is worldly wisdom that is self-seeking and centered upon our own wants and pleasures.  This life leads to conflict, disorder and even chaos.  God’s wisdom of purity, peace, gentleness and humility leads to a life of peace, joy and contentment.  The many struggles we have originate in our own evil desires and we need to accept the grace of God to change our ways.  We must submit to God, resist the devil, draw near to our Savior, clean up our lives, mourn over our sin, and humbly bow before our Lord.  In doing that He will make the devil run, draw near to us, and lift us above what we could ever be by ourselves.

 

Heavenly Father please grant us the humble spirit that seeks Your will over ours.