The Product of Improper Prayer
Notes
Transcript
The brother of Jesus, James, is writing to Christians
He has taught them that faith is acting upon belief.
How to be impartial in dealing with others
How to talk
How to think like Jesus
As James finishes his instruction on thinking to live peaceably with others, he now gives the reason for the problems from which they are struggling.
And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.
Wars and Fighting
Wars and Fighting
From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?
Wars - polemos - pole-eh-mose - same word Jesus used:
And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.
Literal wars - Christians waring against other Christians
Fightings - mache - maw-hhhay - an open clash between two opposing groups
OT - Absalom fighting his father David
NT - Corinth
For, when we were come into Macedonia, our flesh had no rest, but we were troubled on every side; without were fightings, within were fears.
Paul taught Timothy to:
2 Tim 2:23
But foolish and unlearned questions avoid, knowing that they do gender strifes.
From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?
Lust - pleasure - gratifying one’s natural and sinful desires
War - strateuomai - strought-tay-may-i - Comes stratos - the word for an armed camp
Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;
One camp warring against another
But the context here is one camp is fighting with another camp, but both camps are in the same army
The heart of these wars and fightings were:
Lust for pleasure, power, and influence
Murder
Coveteousness
Adultery
Envy
Pride
Slander
James was likely in his 40s or 50s when he penned this letter - this addressed situation among scattered Jewish believers about 20 years after Jesus ascended to Heaven
Paul addressed these matters throughout his letters to churches
Why? The Devil hates churches and will do everything he can to destroy that which is supposed to be the continual reminder point encouraging saints to tell others the name of Jesus Christ
A revival comes - Satan follows it up with reaction
Exploring the Epistle of James: An Expository Commentary (1) The Question Asked (4:1)
The Welsh Revival was followed by a spurious “revival” that caused Evan Roberts’s friend, Jesse Pen Lewis, to write her book War on the Saints.
Where do these things come from? Not Christ. These things are not the fruit of the Holy Spirit?
The Reasons of War
The Reasons of War
Their fleshly lusts
Jam 4:2
Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.
Lust - Covet - wanting to have that, and begin to formulate a plan to get it
But you don’t have it
Desire - zeloo - zay-lawl - to covet earnestly
kill - Jewish believers were under threat of persecution because of their belief in Jesus
Leak to a Jew, like Saul, of a Christian Jew
They still couldn’t get it
Fight and war - they become your enemy
Yet you still do not have what you want
Making the church a battleground
The lusts and coveteous desires of some of the professing Christians were turning the local church into a battleground
Satan loves it when we fight among ourselves instead of warring against him
Human passions can keep the church in turmoil
Even when contending for the truth, an acrimonious (sharp, bitter, corrosive) spirit can assume command. Hot and carnal passions can take over. The cause of Christ can be hindered. The root of such violent squabbles is the flesh. Sometimes the flesh arrays itself in its worldly robes and plunges us into all kinds of carnal and wicked behavior. Sometimes it dons its religious robes and takes a strong stand on some doctrinal error. The flesh can exhibit itself in both the pulpit and the pew. It can pray with self-righteous eloquence. It can triumph in the deacons’ meeting. It can take over the trustees’ meeting. It can split churches over the color of the carpet, fine points of doctrine, or whom a church should receive into its fellowship or ordain to its ministry.
The spirit of the elder brother is worse than that of the Prodigal Son - I never left - why don’t have all this attention
Their failure to pray
Every problem is a prayer problem.
Failure stems from a lack of prayer.
Jam 4:2c-3
Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.
Ask - request for something - NOT asking for someone to do something, but rather requesting an item or a thing
God answers EVERY prayer.
Abraham prayer for Lot - Gen 18 - God spared Lot
Elisha prayed that the Lord would open the eyes of his companion so he could see the magnificent and invisible forces that protected them in 2 Kings 6. God opened his eyes.
David prayed that Ahithophel, a trusted counsellor, would have his council become foolishness after he sided with Absalom in his conspiracy. God sent Hushai in answer to David’s prayer. 2 Sam 15
Hezekiah’s prayer when he was sick.
Daniel prayed for wisdom to tell Nebuchadnezzar his dream the interpretation of that dream. God did both in Daniel 2.
Jesus prayed.
The early church prayers
The true church has always pray.
God answers prayer:
Yes
Wait
3 yr old asking for a car - Yes, when you are 17, have a drivers license, and can afford the car
No
Ask amiss
Amiss - depraved - very bad in nature
Matt 20:21-22
And he said unto her, What wilt thou? She saith unto him, Grant that these my two sons may sit, the one on thy right hand, and the other on the left, in thy kingdom. But Jesus answered and said, Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? They say unto him, We are able.
James & John’s mother came to Jesus and prayed for her sons to be set above all others
Jesus said you’re asking amiss
This not something Jesus was not His to give as this decision is for God the Father
The Bible tells us that the seat beside Him is reserved for God the Son
Prayer has its rules
God’s will
In faith
Clean heart
In the name of Jesus Christ
Expecting
Prayer has a model
Adoration
Confession
Thanksgiving
Supplication
Some years ago, when I was preaching in the West Indies, I heard of a man who liked to use big words, especially when he was praying. He was not an educated man and frequently used words incorrectly, not knowing their meaning. On one occasion, he had picked up an expression that had a resounding ring to it, and he was waiting for a suitable occasion to use it. Shortly afterward, he was at a prayer meeting. Request was made for a brother who was in the hospital facing a serious operation. The brother who was infatuated with big words seized his opportunity. He prayed, “Dear Lord, You know all about Brother Sam’s condition. He’s in the hospital, Lord. He has to have an operation, Lord. Please give him a successful postmortem! In Jesus’ name, Amen.”
Their friendship with the world
James 4:4
Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.
The world has a motive built upon pride, promotion of one’s self, and the sinful means by which it justifies is against Who God and all that He is.
Some were guilty of physical adultery - this is a serious offense against God
Paul dealt with this at the church in Corinth where a man was sinfully with his step-mother
OT - capital crime
Dr. Adrian Rodgers, pastor of the great Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis, Tennessee, say, “A man committing adultery says to his children: ‘Your mother is not worth much, and your father is a cheat and a liar. Honour is not as important as pleasure, and my satisfaction is more important than you.’ ”
David after his adultery with Bathsheba never saw another victory in battle personally - others had to fight for him
There are a thousand ways in which God deals with adultery.
Others were guilty of spiritual adultery
Rom 7:4
Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.
When one gets saved, we enter a relationship with God. Often we use the Father - son/daughter relationship.
God uses this often, and, to show how endeared He is to us, also uses, the closest relationship a man and a woman have, marriage.
When we said “Yes” to Jesus, it is like one saying “I do” to God.
Rev 21:9
And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife.
Carried to the new Jerusalem on the new earth
Rev 21:24
And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it.
God is a jealous God - He wants my heart.
When our heart moves to the world and it’s lures of enticement, suddenly we have become adulterous in heart
The Solution to Peace
The Solution to Peace
Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy?
Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;
If we give our hearts to the Lord, He gives peace, healing, and focus in our lives
For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.