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Text: James 4
Most people who believe in God seem to view God as a Santa Claus. If you don’t view God that way, I’d contend that that’s how you want to view God. You don’t view God as the Creator of creation who establishes reality. You don’t view God as the judge who tells you what is good versus what is evil. And ultimately you’re not really seeking God for anything other than a justification of what you want to believe. Or a divine Santa Claus who gives you what you ask for. And a judge who will prosecute the people you hate.
Friendship with the world (vss 1-6)
- Too many wants
- Our problems first arise from uncontrolled desires. Somewhere in the process these wants become rights.
- Maybe you think because your desire is noble such as you want good things for your kids. Or you want the church to be something. Or you want a good marriage. Since you have such noble desires, you believe you have a RIGHT to these things. And when those rights are violated, you can act how you want to.
- Now, worse are the people who have desires on Amazon or Shein or Temu or Bass Pro Shop, and when they don’t get their way feel entitled to start behaving badly.
- What happens when I don’t get my way?
- This leads to the bigger problem of how you handle disappointment when you don’t get what you want.
- You start fighting people and destroying people for something you want instead of praying for it. Instead of seeking God’s help for it.
- How do you handle not getting your way? Because how you handle this tells you about your real relationship to the God of the Bible. It’s a real indication of whether you possess eternal life or not.
- Do you resort to manipulation or bullying? Then you sound like a lost soul living by godless worldly rules while claiming Jesus.
- You aren’t faithful if you use carnal strategies to get your way.
- Spiritual adultery is a charge against the Jews because they’re unfaithful to the God they claimed.
- But us heathens, friendship with the world means you live by the world’s principles.
- Are you going to lie about someone so you get what you want?
- Are you going to manipulate people so you get what you want?
- You’re not a convert to Christ who acts like a child of God. You’re a bible toating heathen with the same nasty selfish spirit you’ve always had.
- Did you think the scriptures were kidding when they said this is exactly what unfaithful, worldly people do?
- The Holy Spirit through the apostle James doesn’t play around. He’s going to call you and me what we are. Either shape up or quit lying to yourself about what you are.
Trust the God of the Bible (vss 7-12)
- Resisting the devil
- does not mean when you start feeling depressed you rebuke the devil. It doesn’t mean when life gets hard we cast a spell against evil with the magic words of the bible. No.
- Resisting the devil means when you’re not getting your way, you resist the temptation to do wrong to get your way. Resisting the devil means I feel like getting even, but I’m choosing to be a blessing to this person.
- Drawing near to God
- means praying, trusting the LORD, and doing right while you wait.
- Verse 9 means to accept the present circumstances without them dragging you into sin.
- Verses 11-12 say exactly what godless people do when they don’t get their way. They start tearing the object of their wrath down with their mouth. But you aren’t the judge just because you didn’t get your way.
Do the good you know to do (vss 13-17)
- You don’t create your time on this earth. You received it, therefore it’s not yours to brag about. Time is a gift from God
- Time is a gift from God which means you don’t determine WHEN you choose to do right. Your job and my job is to just do right with the time we have.
- People who choose to do good when it’s convenient aren’t children of God. That’s godless. A child of God who participates in eternal life chooses good regardless of the circumstances. A child of God is not a friend of the world because they don’t treat life like the world treats life.
- YOLO. Therefore get all you can, right? The world’s philosophy is time is short therefore have as much fun as you can.
- The LORD says time is short therefore do as much good as you can and be good. Honor the sacrifice of Jesus Christ as best and as often as you can. This will make for the best life possible. Don’t entertain evil. That’s a thief.
- As fun as it may be to hate people, life is a lot more enjoyable when you can love people.
- As fun as it is to manipulate and bully people when you don’t get your way. Life is much more enjoyable when I don’t have to get my way and you don’t have to be my enemy.
- When you know to do good, do it. And thus honor the Lord Jesus Christ. This is drawing near to God.
