Leaving Our Pride

We kicked off the series learning about trials and how these are actually important. Without trials we would have no measure or standard to see how faithful we are to God.

If everything was fine all the time, why would we call on God or even worship him. If we’re honest, a lot of us forget to worship God in the good times. We only do it in the bad times.

So we should see trials as a joyful thing for we are being tested in our faith which means we are in fact part of the kingdom. We are to endure these and show that we are committed to God and that no matter what comes our way, he is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Favoritism

From here we moved into favoritism. We learned that our preferences need to be thrown to the way side. Everyone is worthy of our time.

If we do choose to serve some and not others, we are sinning. We are going against loving our neighbor. This was something of great importance that Jesus taught.

In fact, the last 6 commandments pertain solely to loving your neighbor as yourself.

We have this command in both the New and Old testaments.

Our Tongue

Last week we took another look at our tongue. Quick to listen, slow to speak is what we are should be doing.

You have no idea how hard it is to bite my tongue when something does not go my way. When someone comes up and just hits me with something from left field, I want to go on the defense and fight back.

We can not do this. Now there is a time when you should fight back but 95% of the time, we just need to listen and form our words carefully.

Awkward silence is okay while you prepare a response.

A quick verbal jab back wrecks relationships and has a lasting ripple affect.

I’d rather take awkward silence over a years worth of repair work.

Selfishness & Pride

Today I want to attack pride and selfishness. These are two things that just love to rule over us. It is awful when you see someone else and you know you’re wasting your breath with them because of their pride and arrogance getting in the way.

I wonder how many people might say that about you? Ever thought about that?

So today I want to unpack this and bring this to the light because it can be easy to get lost in the darkness.

Shot, some of you today may not even agree with the teaching because you are prideful and arrogant.

My prayer is that God would open your eyes to this sin in your life and do a wondrous work through it.

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James 4:1–10 ESV

1 What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? 2 You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. 4 You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5 Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? 6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” 7 Submit yourselves therefore 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, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

Week 5

Text:

Topic: Influence, Responsibility, the Tongue, Communication

Topic: Pride, Humility, Lust

Big Idea of the Message: Our words can cause new life or cause destruction.

Big Idea of the Message: Strife and struggles come from our pride and selfish actions.

Application Point: We must make a habit of thinking before we speak.

Application Point: Asking in faith and humility will always cure worldliness within us.

Sermon Ideas and Talking Points:

1. Certain positions require a particular amount of responsibility and come with a large amount of influence—for instance, teachers, mentors, and any kind of supervisor role. Communication is the way in which human beings thrive, grow, and make progress in the world and relationships. In verse 1, James expresses the caution against too many people in the community becoming teachers; he warns that teachers receive stricter judgment. Since teachers have such a great influence on people and their progress, they have a much larger responsibility than others.

Like I said, I want to attack the pride and selfishness in our life’s today with this text. James as usual, does a great job at bring this easy sin we commit to the light.

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James 4:1–2 ESV

Question from James

James poses a question to begin his discussion concerning pride and how it can cause strife and quarrels.

1. James poses a question to begin his discussion concerning pride and how it can cause strife and quarrels. He specifically asks where quarrels and fights begin (v. 1) and tells us that our desire for pleasure is what causes these conflicts. Not only is our desire for pleasure a contrast to our desire for God’s will, but it is filled with futility. We may lust, covet, and fight, yet we don’t obtain anything profitable by these impulses (v. 2). Not only can we find our inner self warring against our members, but the inner desires we have can affect our community, causing war amongst each other.

He specifically asks where quarrels and fights begin (v. 1) and tells us that our desire for pleasure is what causes these conflicts.

Not only is our desire for pleasure a contrast to our desire for God’s will, but it is filled with pointlessness.

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Human anger cannot accomplish the righteousness of God.

We may lust, covet, and fight, yet we don’t obtain anything profitable by these impulses (v. 2).

Does a toddler get their way when they throw a temper tamptrum? 99% of the time no.

Why do we resort to lusting, coveting, and fighting when we do not get what we want?

We have to become aware of this.

Not only can we find our inner self warring against our members, but the inner desires we have can affect our community, causing war amongst each other.

It has a ripple affect. Our actions have a ripple affect.

Crab Illustration

Explain to your congregation the concept of “crabs in a bucket.”

2. The tongue is compared to two things that are considered small compared to the force they exert. A horse, as big as it is, can be moved by the use of bits (v. 3). A ship, as large and intimidating as it and the winds that drive it might be, can be maneuvered through the sea by a small rudder (v. 4). In the same way, the tongue is a small part of the body that can cause much damage or much prosperity. It is the tongue that can control our lives. These examples James gives make the point that many things, especially animals (v. 7) have been tamed, ruled, and dominated by humankind. The beasts of the field can be tamed; however, the tongue is far harder to tame (v. 8).

The crabs continually try to get themselves out of the bucket by crawling on top of each other and pulling each other down.

It is an endless cycle, as each crab is only trying to help themselves, thus fighting with all the others.

Getting themselves out of the bucket is the thing they are lusting after, which is only causing futility.

In a similar way, the things that James speaks of are due to selfish desires, bringing the community down instead of helping it.

3. Use this video of a match domino effect to illustrate verse 5–6. One match quickly sets fire to the entire set of matches. In a similar way, the tongue can quickly do the same (vv. 5–6): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vee61VS0YcA. (Note: Remind watchers not to try dangerous experiments like this at home.)

When we go about making decisions our own way without being led by the Spirit, we can find ourselves living in a cycle of pointlessness.

Pick up in Verse 3.

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James 4:3 ESV

3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.

This way of trying to get what you want is the way that the world does it—going about it in a lustful way instead of asking in faith (vv. 1–3). The strife described in verse 1 comes from the pride of knowing you’ve got God and the Spirit of God in you, yet instead of asking him, you become adulterers by compromising your commitment to God, cheating on God with the world. This decision-making rooted in lust and pride can put us at odds with God; the pride keeps us from asking. Thus, James emphasizes his earlier point of double-mindedness (1:8) by explaining the consequences in 4:1–10.

Asking in Faith

This way of trying to get what you want is the way that the world does it—going about it in a lustful way instead of asking in faith (vv. 1–3).

The strife described in verse 1 comes from the pride of knowing you’ve got God and the Spirit of God in you, yet instead of asking him, you become adulterers by compromising your commitment to God, cheating on God with the world.

This decision-making rooted in lust and pride can put us at odds with God; the pride keeps us from asking.

We get into this state of mind that we can do it. That we do not need anyones help let alone God’s.

If we are not careful, we can get stuck in this mindset for far longer than we would want to be.

Thus, James emphasizes his earlier point of double-mindedness (1:8) by explaining the consequences in 4:1–10.

James gives us a simple answer to this problem.

Verse 4-7

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James 4:4–7 ESV

4 You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5 Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? 6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” 7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

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4. The tongue is able to communicate what’s in our heart and on our mind. This means that we are liable to speak many good things, but also can cause much destruction. James emphasizes this by reminding us of how we can bless God in one moment and curse his image bearers in the next (v. 9). The tongue cannot be tamed by sinful human beings (v. 8). We must continually make the choice to renew our minds in order to try to control our tongue, along with the help of the Holy Spirit.

Submitting

Keeping with the theme of pride in chapter 4, we see an answer to the problem:

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“Submit … to God.

Resist the devil, and he will flee” (v. 7).

Submitting to God comes first, putting ourselves back in a place of humility.

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All conflict resolution should begin by a renews submission to God by the internal act of submission to him.

Resisting the devil may seem like a difficult thing to do, but if we continue to submit to God in everything we do, resisting Satan is a natural outgrowth of that submission.

Resisting evil requires self-control, which is considered a fruit of the Spirit ().

We as Christians should always strive toward a lifestyle that bears the fruit of the Spirit; this will produce most of our answers to the problems we face.

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Evil cannot persuade the human will but it is dependent upon it, much like a parasite.

If we are in humble submission to God, then evil can not feed off of us any longer. But when we try to take it on ourselves, that allows evil to latch on and slow us down.

Someone pick up in verse 8.

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James 4:8–10 ESV

8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

Humble Ourselves

Verse 10 goes on to say that we should humble ourselves before God and he will be the one to “lift [us] up” (v. 10).

We can easily run out of energy trying to do things ourselves, when God only wants pure and humble hearts.

5. Show your congregation a photo of a ski lift.

5. “Verse 9 mentions both a positive and a negative use of the tongue. The positive use involved praise of God, the highest function of human speech (see ). The negative use involved cursing human beings. Cursing refers to personal verbal abuse, perhaps arising from loss of temper in an argument or debate. It also involves the expression of angry wishes on enemies. It includes speech which is insulting as well as profane. Verse 10 spotlights the inconsistency of this action. We are sinfully inconsistent when we bless God and then curse those made in God’s likeness. When we curse those whom God has made, we are effectively cursing God. He is the object of both expressions. Such a double standard is outrageous: My brethren, this should not be” (Thomas D. Lea, Hebrews, James, Holman New Testament Commentary 10 [Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1999], 305).

Ski Lift Illustration

There are two ways to get up the top of the mountain: climb up yourself or use the ski lift.

Use this imagery to explain how some of us are trying to climb the mountain ourselves, in pride, instead of accepting the lift pass from the ski instructor (humility) in order to be carried up.

God is willing to carry us up the ski lift when we’re humble (v. 10).

Photo: https://unsplash.com/photos/KmX1GXKxUX8

Now we have used a lot of bigger words if you will today. Some that we honestly do not use often.

6. In the 1998 remake of The Parent Trap, Annie runs into her future stepmother Meredith as she’s hanging out with her dad. Meredith speaks very highly of Annie in front of her dad and assistant, continuing to give her many compliments. However, as soon as she drives off with her assistant, she begins to tear Annie down and call her names, expressing the exact opposite. Use this illustration to show how quickly we often change how we speak about someone, depending on who is listening.

“Covetousness is elsewhere called idolatry, and it is here called adultery;

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it is a forsaking of him to whom we are devoted and espoused, to cleave to other things;

there is this brand put upon worldly-mindedness—that it is enmity to God.

A man may have a competent portion of the good things of this life, and yet may keep himself in the love of God;

but he who sets his heart upon the world, who places his happiness in it, and will conform himself to it, and do any thing rather than lose its friendship, he is an enemy to God;

it is constructive treason and rebellion against God to set the world upon his throne in our hearts.

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Whosoever therefore is the friend of the world is the enemy of God.

He who will act upon this principle, to keep the smiles of the world, and to have its continual friendship, cannot but show himself, in spirit, and in his actions too, an enemy to God”

I’ll close with this.

Pride can lead us down a dangerous road. It is often hard to see when we are being prideful.

This is why the community of faith is important. We need those brother’s and sister’s in Christ to help point out the inconsistencies in our life’s.

Lastly, exposing sin is never fun. Especially when it is in our own lives.

It will take a big act of humble submission to allow sin to be exposed. But once it is, it is freeing. You can only go forward from their.

Jesus Christ has paid the debt of our sin in full. Both past, present, and future.

We should want to get it out in the open and allow the saving work of christ to rain over us.