Here is the talk I gave last night at the athlete's Bible study.
James 4:1-10
What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Don’t they come from the evil desires at war within you? You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them. Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it. And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure.
You adulterers! Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God. What do you think the Scriptures mean when they say that the spirit God has placed within us is filled with envy? But he gives us even more grace to stand against such evil desires. As the Scriptures say,
“God opposes the proud
but favors the humble.”
but favors the humble.”
So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come close to God, and God will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world. Let there be tears for what you have done. Let there be sorrow and deep grief. Let there be sadness instead of laughter, and gloom instead of joy. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up in honor.
This is a hard passage. Actually, all of James is a bit
intense and he’s not asking easy things. Here is the context
of this letter. The author is actually James the brother of Jesus who
interestingly enough rejected Jesus when he was living. In John 7:5 it says,
“For even his own brothers did not believe in him.” However, James eventually
becomes a believer and a follower of Christ when Jesus appeared to him after
the resurrection. He goes on to become a key leader in the church. He’s
writing this letter to Christians. If you know anything about the book of Acts
you know that it is the account of how the church began. James is writing to
Jewish people who have recently professed faith in Jesus Christ and they were
being persecuted hard core by the leaders of Judaism. Which makes sense because
they were professing something radical. They were literally changing the face
of tradition. For thousands of years, God was viewed one way until Jesus. And following
him meant that everything was different. Many of these Christians were
experiencing homelessness, loss of possessions, physical abuse, poverty, and
separation from family. It makes sense why James would implore them in chapter
1 to persevere through “trials of many kinds.” The purpose of James' letter was to encourage suffering Christians in the face of hardship and to strengthen them for faithful Christian living.
The second part of that
purpose is what I want to talk about tonight. Cru has a mission statement. Here
it is: we are trusting God to see students all over Southwest Missouri who
don’t know Jesus meet him for the first time and those who do know Jesus be
built up in their faith and follow him passionately and globally for a
lifetime. I want you guys to know that our goal here in Cru isn’t you
following God for a few years in college then doing your own thing. Our goal
isn’t having you kind of, maybe, sort of following God in college. Our goal isn’t
that you would do your own thing on Friday and Saturday nights but show up here
on Wednesdays and church on Sundays. No. That’s not our goal. Our goal is that
you would follow God passionately and globally for a lifetime. That for the
rest of your lives God would be your first love. That you would be excited
about your faith. That there is no where you wouldn’t go if he asked you to.
That when you are old and wrinkly and grey you love him more than you ever
have. That’s our hope and that’s why we do what we do. James’ mission in this
text is to encourage Christians for faithful Christian living. He wants them to
persevere and live as Christ called them to live. So as we look at our text I
see two problems that I think are current realities college students are
facing.
#1 – We’re selfish. In verses 1-3 James calls us out.
He says our desires cause fights and quarrels. In our prayers we turn God into
a cosmic Santa Clause, asking selfishly for things that we want rather than for
things that will glorify God or benefit others. Ultimately we’re seeking our
own pleasure and we’ll do whatever it takes to make that happen. If you dare to
be honest with yourself answer some of these questions in your mind right now.
- What’s the last thing you asked God for? Was it for someone else? Was the purpose to glorify God or you?
- Or how about this one? Think of the one thing that you’ve always wanted. Maybe it’s the perfect job or marriage or a comfortable life or your health. Let’s say God took that away from you. Told you that you couldn’t have it and you never would. Would you still follow him?
- Or how about this one? This might hit a little closer to home. If you’re a starter and your position was taken from you what’s your first reaction? Do your thoughts go to me, me, me? Are you thinking about the good of the team?
#2 – The second problem that James addresses is our friendship
with the world. In verse 4 he’s calls us “adulterous” people. The definition of
adultery is “voluntary sexual intercourse between a married person and someone
other than his or her lawful spouse.” He’s calling us unfaithful. Cheaters. And
we’re cheating on him with the world. A huge problem I see on college
campuses especially in the "Bible belt" is this whole half in the world, half in religion. I might step on some
toes here, but you guys are college athletes and I think you can take it. Some
of you guys have a title without a bit of substance. You say you’re a
Christian, but if someone followed you around for a week they wouldn’t be able
to tell. Some of you give God your Wednesday night and Sunday morning and
that’s it. Some of you look at the Bible as more of a book suggestions than
God’s word and there’s repetitive sin in your life that you’re choosing to
ignore. Some of you want the world’s standards of success. You want to be rich
and comfortable. And some of you will be
Christians as long as God doesn’t ask you to do anything too radical or the
cost of following him isn’t too high. You want Jesus as long as it fits in with
your life plan. And I get that because honestly that was me my freshman and
sophomore year. I claimed to be a Christian, but if you looked at my life it
was a pretty empty claim. I got drunk on Saturday night and was sitting there
in Church on Sunday morning. I was willing to “follow God” as long as he gave
me everything I wanted and gave me a comfortable life. I wanted one foot in the
world and one foot in relationship with God. But it doesn’t work that way.
James says in verse 4 that “friendship with the world is hatred toward God” and
if we “choose to be a friend of the world we become an enemy of God.” We can’t
have our cake and eat it too. We don’t get to hang out on the fence with one
foot in both worlds. We have to choose.
It makes me think of Mean Girls. The main character Kady is befriended by some of the art geeks,
but the popular girls, nicknamed "The Plastics," invite her to sit with them one day at lunch. Her art geek friends, Janis and Dameon, decide it would be funny to try and mess with The Plastics so Kady starts
hanging out with them. She does whatever she can to sabotage them and their popularity. But what starts happening? Eventually she starts
transforming and becomes exactly like them. Rather than destroy The Plastics as planned, she becomes one of them. She can’t keep up in both worlds
and eventually she becomes the queen bee in The Plastics. The sad thing is we
think we can do both, but just like Kady we can’t.
We end up becoming like the
world. Jesus says in Matthew 6:24, “No one can serve two masters.
Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the
one and despise the other.” And the honest truth is God isn’t interested in
having half of you anyway. He wants it all. That’s why James says in verse 5
that the Spirit that lives in you “envies intensely.” We have to check
ourselves.
- Am I trying to have a foot in both worlds?
- Is there sin in my life that I’m not willing to let go of?
- Do people actually know I’m Christian? And not just because I show up to Bible study or church
- Would they be able to tell I’m a Christian on Tuesday? Or Friday night?
The good news is that
James 4 doesn’t stop at verse 5. Yes, the problems he addresses are hard to own
up to. But I hope you can be honest with yourself, because there is good news
in verses 6-10. James gives us a solution to our wicked hearts. I see two main
things in these verses that James is asking us to do. Accept grace and live in
humility. Let’s dig into these a little deeper.
#1 - Grace – Verse 6 says, “But.” Whenever you see
that word in scripture, you should most definitely pause because in a lot of
instances something really profound is coming. James just spent 5 verses
telling us how much we suck and then follows it up immediately with the “but
God gives you more grace.” What? I’m really undeserving. That’s the point. That
is exactly why grace is so amazing. The definition of grace is "an undeserved
good gift." So when James says more grace he means believe the gospel. The
gospel is this: we are more jacked up, messed up, and sinful than we'd ever
care to admit, but because of the blood of Jesus we are more accepted,
loved, and valued than we could ever
dare hope. Both of those things at the same time. We need to hear that. And not
just once, but over and over again. If you’re a Christian you need the gospel
every day. When you start realizing the magnitude of that truth that should
lead you to humility which is the next thing James calls us to.
#2 - Humility – the definition of humility is "having
or showing a modest or low estimate of one's own importance." This doesn’t mean
that you have low self-esteem or low self-worth. It simply means that you are
not arrogant or proud. You understand that the world doesn’t revolve around
you. You have a right picture of who you are. James quotes Proverbs 3:34 in
verse 6 which says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
These theme of humility continues in verses 9 and 10. In verse 10 he says,
“Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will lift you up.” That’s a little
different than the way our culture views it huh? Go back one verse to 9 and
James says, “Grieve, mourn, and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your
joy to gloom.” As a generally happy person this verse confused me in the past.
What I think James is getting at here is a sense of brokenness over our sin. He
wants us to be torn up over our sin. Part of humility is coming before the
Lord, having nothing to offer and accepting his free gift of grace. That should
be really, really humbling. We are given a gift we could never deserve. I
think of Psalm 51:16-17. David says in this Psalm, “You do not delight in
sacrifice or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. The
sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you
will not despise.” God isn’t interested in our list of good works. What he desires
is a broken spirit and a contrite heart. Which means a repentant, sorrowful,
remorseful heart. He desires humility. Falling on our face before him admitting
that we desperately need him. And that great news is that in verse 8 he
promises to come near to us when we come near to him. We may not know exactly
how to start moving towards him, but he promises that if we start moving he
will reciprocate. If we come to him broken and needy he won’t leave us hanging.
I don’t know where all of you stand tonight. Some of you may
be all in for God and that’s awesome. Continue to submit and surrender to him!
But challenge yourself. Are there areas of your life that you haven’t been
giving to God? Think about that and continue to take steps to give it all to
him. Others of you may not be on the fence at all. Maybe you’ve never surrendered
your life to Christ. If that is something you want to do come and talk to me or any of
the leaders would love to talk with you more about what that looks like. Some of you may be on the
fence. You’ve got one foot in the world and one foot in a relationship with
God. I don’t want to sound harsh. That’s not me and that’s not my heart. I
really just want to challenge you tonight. Pick a side. You may think you can
balance both, but I hope you see the truth in what James is saying. Friendship
with the world is hatred toward God. I’m not going to sugarcoat that for you
guys. The one thing I can promise you is that following God is worth it. Being
all in for him is not a life you will regret. I love the life I live. It’s not
perfect by any means, but when I compare my life now to the life I lived as
freshman and sophomore in college I can say with confidence I have never been
more satisfied or full of joy. I don’t feel like I’m
missing out because I follow Jesus. If you don't listen to me, listen to Paul. He writes in
Philippians 3:7-9, “But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of
Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of
knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all
things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ.” He counts
his former life as rubbish. And he had a pretty successful life by the world’s
standards. And if you’re not going to believe Paul, believe Jesus. He says in
John 10:10, “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” If you’re
on the fence I want you to know that you’re missing out. God has an abundant
life for you. He’s just waiting for you to pick his side and go all in.
