21 Sep 10/4/26 James 4:1-12 “A Terrible Diet!”
10/4/26 James 4:1-12 “A Terrible Diet!”
As we all know, we live in a world of instant gratification. There is no getting around it. It’s here and we have to deal with it. I really don’t see anyone uninventing the computer or modern medicine or modern vehicles. These are all great parts of our lives. The down side is when people use these things for bad purposes. Today, we can have just about anything we want at any time we want. We live in a world where we don’t have to wait for anything. Therefore we develop problems with our patience. Speaking of patience, did anyone pray for patience this week? That’s our assignment. I only ask that you do this so that you may have a better life. So let’s try this again. Anyway, we get upset if a building project isn’t on time. We get worked up if someone shows up 5 minutes late. Because of instant gratification, we as a society, are losing our patience. When we do this, then we lose touch with God and that my friends is not a good thing to have happen as we can see by looking at our world. Today, we are going to look at the James 4 to see why we might get upset and what to do about it.
On Sept. 2, 1945 General Douglas MacArthur said this at the end of WW II, “Today the guns are silent…the skies no longer rain death…the seas bear only commerce…men everywhere walk upright in the sunlight. The entire world is quietly at peace….” It only cost the world about 60 million lives and $1 trillion. It was a terrible war as they all are. But this was only a few years after President Woodrow Wilson had declared “the war to end all wars.” And shortly before that we had the Spanish American War. Since WWII we had the Korean War followed shortly by the Vietnam War. Just when we might have learned something, several years went by and we have 2 wars in Iraq, one in Afghanistan and one in Iran. Then we have to throw in all the senseless murders in this country, the assassinations and other mayhem that resulted in the deliberate death of people. They are killing people in colleges and schools all the time. Have you ever thought of asking the question, “What in the world is wrong with us?” Instead of condemning, we condone every other form of violence. What is it about you that seem to rub everyone the wrong way?
James begins by asking a couple of pointed questions. What causes fights? Isn’t it from the desires that battle within you? This might hit you right between the eyes. We find in the 10 Commandments that we shall not covet and yet this is one of the most ignored Commandments. Please notice that I didn’t say the 10 Suggestions. Now I could say that as a nation, we covet the oil in the Middle East. Or maybe we covet the gold and diamond fields from where ever they are. I’m not wrong in saying this because often it’s something we covet that starts wars.
But that is the easy way out. Let’s talk about you and me for a minute. We read about the spouses who fight and then one hurts the other. We hear about barroom fights where someone really gets hurt. In some circles this is considered a sport. How depraved have we become? Have you ever had a chance to watch siblings fight? There is fighting all around us. We fight at school board meetings. We fight at church meetings. I really cannot think of a place where people don’t fight. It is really getting to be worse or at least we hear more about it. But no matter how we look at it, this isn’t good.
James comes right out and says it. You get mad because you don’t get what you want. If that is not about as spoiled as one can get, I do not know what is. In board meetings, it is called getting your own way. In other places it might just be called being greedy. But no matter where it occurs or for what reason, it all boils down to our focus is on ourselves. Everything we do is all about ‘me.’ We have talked about this several times over the years.
Then we come to an often quoted passage where James tells us that we do not have because we have not asked God. This was a problem then and it might be a little different now. In the ancient times, this was a new religion. All other religions of the time and this is even true today, were works based. In other words, you could have salvation or good crops or large families but you had to do something before any of these false gods would seemingly answer you. Even the Jewish religion depended on sacrifices. So this asking God for things is something new to them. It would take a lot of reminding and teaching to help these people stay on track.
Today we live in a different world, obviously. I would say that most people in this country know about God. They have heard of Him. It was only a couple of generations ago that God was the main focus in this country. We could spend a lot of time blaming people for our falling away from God, but that is pretty much a waste of time. There is no reason on earth why this whole country is not on its knees before God. There are all kinds of lame excuses for not bowing down and that is all they will be until you finally come before Jesus in person.
Sometimes it takes a tragedy before we start to come back to Jesus. We witnessed this after the attacks on 9-11. People flocked to church to hear the comforting words of Jesus and I would say for the most part, we did not get it. Therefore, it was not too many weeks after this that Satan was back to business as usual. Today, we are worse off than before 9-11. We have tragedies in our communities just about every week. We have had people turn to Jesus for some comforting words. Will this do any good or will all our words fall once again on deaf ears. Anyway, we do not have because we do not ask God.
I can just hear some people say that they ask God all the time for things. I know this is true. We ask God for things all the time and it is only once in a while that He answers the way I want Him to answer. Therefore, you think that He is not answering when in fact He is. We all know how God works. He works in His mysterious ways, not our obvious ways. He may even say no!
James is pretty blunt once again when he tells us that we usually ask for things with ourselves in mind. I am just as guilty of this as anyone. I pray for things with the ultimate goal that it will benefit me in the long run or short run. Other times I pray for things that might make you feel better or do better which in turn make me feel better. Now do not get me wrong here. It is ok to pray for these things however; you need to pray properly.
We and the ancients needed to see what God can do and what He will not do. He will not be our wish granter. He will not give you all that you want. Here lies a big rub. We like to confuse what we need with what we want. We need air to breathe and we want to have clean air. We need food for our bodies and we only want what we like to eat. Do you see the difference? God provides for us for our needs. Our wrongful thinking soon leads us to think that our wants are now our needs.
God has never said that He would give us all we want. On the contrary, He has said He will give us what we need and He will be with us at all times. So when we ask for things from God, we have to do so with the right heart. To begin, He will only answer those who believe in Him. I’m afraid in our society there are far more people who only kind of believe in God, in Jesus. They believe as long as they get what they want. Remember that there is no middle ground here. You cannot kind of believe. You are either for or against God. These people who ride the fence will find a very sad fate waiting for them unless they change their ways.
Now for the most part I’m not afraid for those here today. I think that this is as good as an example of a group of believers that there is. Now I say this because the evidence tells us so. You are taking time out of your busy day to do this which is very worthwhile. God is with you and granting you the facilities to bring in more people. But always remember that God wants you, that’s you, to go out and show your faith so that you can bring more people to Christ. It has and never will be about our buildings or this broadcast. We know this and I am just reminding you.
Then James goes on to point out something that I try to point out every time we come across it. Do not you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Turn your back to the world and humble yourself before God. This is another way of saying that there is no in between. Once again you are either for God or against God. There is no middle ground here. Many scholars are so in love with the world that they are trying to teach us that the world is changing and we had better change God to fit into the world. Adam Hamilton, who is the pastor of one of the largest United Methodist churches in the country, has drastically changed his theology so now he says that the Apostle Paul has it all wrong. Who does this guy think he is? These people love the world and they hate God. You know these people. Some might even be your neighbors.
But God is not done yet. Yes, there is lots of unbelief even in our own area. And as much as we try to stray away, God has provided for us abundantly more grace. God has to do this because we are inherently more evil than good and that is because evil rules this world. So God stands before you with His arms open. He will do anything for you. If you are not ready, you may walk right by and not even notice Him. But there He is again at the next downward turn in your life with His arms held out for you again. He will continue to do this until the day you draw your last breath and then it is too late.
God does not want it to be too late for anyone in the world. That is why He sent us Jesus. Jesus took on all the sin, past, present and future and He beat that old rotten devil. We need to understand that this is what James is talking about. This is what the whole Bible talks about. We live in a world of grace and most of us do not even know it. When was the last time you did anything that was too sinful for God to forgive? You have never done this and you never will because God has infinitely more grace than Satan will have tricks in his ugly bag.
James then tells us to submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee. People, if you have Jesus in your heart, then the devil has no chance. If you tell him to flee, then he has to flee because he is a fallen angel who is still subject to God. All you have to do, and this goes back to the beginning, is ask God in sincerity to remove Satan and he is gone.
Once again, James is calling us to confession and repentance. He says, “Wash your hands you sinners, and purify your hearts you double minded.” He is trying to tell us that it’s not enough to just confess because the evil one will gain the upper hand again. We not only have to accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior but we have to keep coming back in confession. I had to look up this next part where he tells us to grieve, mourn, wail and turn our laughter to mourning. This means that we have to be sincere in our confession and repentance of our sins. You cannot just give your sin a little lip service and its ok with God. You have to actually mean your confession. You have to grieve that you sinned in the first place. You have to mourn that you sinned. In other words, you have to totally and completely mean it.
And when you do these things then God will lift you up. There may be someone here today that has never experienced what confession to God feels like. Every time you do it, you come away feeling good and cleansed. You are ready to take on the world with a renewed vigor. Am I correct? You will be lifted up. You will be feeling as good as a puppy cradled in its owners arms. Now we’re talking grace!
Here’s an illustration. A couple of decades or so back a Christian magazine did a survey and found that the most important thing for college students was to find a proper philosophy of life. That is now in #8 position with various greed and money matters in the top 7. This type of thought promotes all sorts of bad thinking that is bad for our society. Remember the story of the prodigal son? He took all his inheritance and left his home. He spent all of it. He squandered it on wild living. When he got done, he had nothing to show for it. He was broke and living in a pig sty! It has always seemed to me that he ended up eating something like pea pods which were pig food. Now many of us today like pea pods so this doesn’t seem so bad. But how would you like to eat nothing but pea pods. What a terrible diet! Anyway, he sees his errors and goes back home. Basically, he confessed and repented. He turned his life around and came home. He went out and became one of the lowest of sinners and still God, his father, was waiting for him to return. God never gives up on you. Proper philosophy about God should be #1 in your life.
Jesus Christ is waiting right now to lift you up. He not only wants to lift you up but He wants to hold you up for your whole life. And when you finally come home to Jesus, you will already be best friends. James does a lot of condemning in this letter but there is far more Good News than bad. Jesus loves you. That is a fact. Don’t wait until tomorrow. Go to Him today in all sincerity and continue to go to him every day. Thank you, Jesus, for first loving us. Let’s pray.
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