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James 4:1-10
! Introduction
A few weeks ago we went to Carman to watch volleyball.
The Rosenort boys and girls varsity teams were playing against the Carman teams.
The reason we went to this particular game is that our son and daughter-in-law are coaching the Carman girls team.
When the boys played it was easy to cheer for Rosenort.
In the girls game, however, we joked that we had come to sit on the fence.
My intention was to sit quietly and try to look at the game from both sides.
What we found, however, was that it was hard to sit on the fence.
Without choosing to do so, we found ourselves cheering for one team more than the other.
Even though we tried to sit quietly and watch the game impartially, we couldn’t do it.
The stifled cheers in our hearts escaped to our lips a few times.
What made it even more difficult is that it was a really good game and both teams played very well.
Have you ever tried to sit on a fence.
I mean literally.
Picket fences and barb wire fences are particularly hard to sit on.
I can never seem to do it for very long, it is just too uncomfortable and I find my self getting off on one side of the fence or the other.
How often do you try to sit on the fence in your spiritual life?
You want to serve God, but you really want to be in control of your time.
You know it would be best to obey God, but you also want to enjoy some of the pleasures of life you know are not right.
If it is hard to sit on a fence literally, it is impossible to do spiritually.
At least that is what James says in James 4:1-10, which we will examine this morning.
As we have studied James, we have heard some challenging words.
James has been very direct with his readers.
As we have listened, our attitudes, actions and lifestyle have been deeply challenged.
The passage we come to today is even more intense.
In fact, James is fairly shouting.
One writer says, “The language is loud and confronting; it is bombastic and full of warning; it is intense and unrelenting.”
As we hear the intensity of his concerns, I hope that we will listen carefully to what he has to say.
!
I.
Is There A Problem? 4:1-3
I was working at camp as a counsellor.
One day as I walked around the corner of the cabin, the quick dispersal of boys and the guilty looks on their faces suggested that something was going on.
I asked them if there was a problem, but they all denied it.
The evidence of guilty looks, a few bloody knuckles and dirty pants suggested otherwise.
The evidence was that there had been a fight, but it was not being acknowledged.
It is hard to deal with a problem if it is not recognized as a problem.
Spiritually we are loathe to admit that we have a problem.
We live and act as if there is nothing wrong, yet the dirt on our pants, our bloody knuckles and our guilty looks suggest otherwise.
In verses 1-3, James presents the evidence that something is wrong.
In order to come to the realization that we have a problem, I would like to ask four questions, which relate to the issues James raises in verses 1-3.
!! A. Do you have fights with others?
Vs. 1, 2
The opening question asks “what causes wars and what causes fights among you?”
Although the NIV uses the words fights and quarrels, the actual words, as most other translations have it, are wars and fights.
The language is strong and this is where we notice that James is shouting.
He overstates the case, but in some ways he doesn’t.
War is the long term participation in conflict.
We talk about WWII, the cold war, and now the “war against terrorism.”
We understand that these things go on for years.
Sometimes with active conflict and sometimes with the awareness of opposition, but no actual battle going on.
The same thing can happen between brothers and sisters in the church.
There are times when brothers and sisters have long standing disputes and attitudes of hatred and opposition towards one another.
Fights are the battles that can erupt in the midst of a war.
Like the bombing raid in Afghanistan, which we are told is just one strategy in the war on terrorism.
Fights are the actual conflicts that erupt.
The same thing happens in the church where suddenly there is open conflict and people are arguing with each other and hurting each other.
The question of wars and fights is a question that indicates that something is wrong and so we also must ask, are there wars in our life?
I hear about these battles.
I hear about people who refuse to be in the same group as another person.
I hear about churches and pastors who battle with each other.
I hear about words that are spoken to tear another person down.
Are there long standing disputes that we have not resolved?
Are there fights that we are engaged in right now?
If these things are happening, it is the indication of a deeper problem.
What are the battles you are engaged in now?
Why?
!! B. Do you want things you can’t get?
Vs. 2
James identifies the immediate cause as desire which is unsatisfied.
That in itself is another problem and raises a question which also reveals that there is a problem.
Do you want things that you aren’t getting?
James makes clear that he is talking about selfish pleasures, desires for things that we want for ourselves without regard to how it will impact others or how we get them.
It is a manifestation of the self-centeredness we talked about last week.
James puts it this way, “You want something but don’t get it.”
The problem easily arises in any one of us.
People we know live at a standard of living which is above ours.
We want to fit in and we want all the nice things that they have and so we live beyond our means so that we can have what other people have.
Our society is full of the desire for things.
The success of the gambling industry is simply a manifestation of this desire for more things.
I know that I am not immune to it.
How many times I have daydreamed about how I would spend my money if I ever got a large sum of money.
But the problem is not only in the area of desiring things or money.
It is also in other areas.
It can happen in the area of desire for relationships.
It could be in the area of desire for friends, for a spouse, for a relationship with a certain person.
It could be in the area of a desire for a particular job, for success, for recognition, for a position on a team or anything else we might want.
Many of these things are good things, but if we want them and don’t get them and our wanting becomes an obsession, we are in the sinking boat that James is describing.
When we desire in this way and are not getting and begin to hurt, blame or become angry, we reveal that there is some kind of a problem in our heart.
So we need to ask ourselves.
Is there something that I want so much that it is becoming a problem for me?
If there is, it reveals that there is a problem.
!! C. Do you ask God? Vs. 2
James goes deeper and accuses, “you do not have because you do not ask God.”
When he asks this question, he comes close to the root of the problem, but not asking God is still only a manifestation of the problem.
Someone told me a story this week about a time when he experienced God’s help in an unusual way.
When he told his experience to another believer, the other person laughed at his suggestion that this was God at work.
Such a mindset, which we readily hold, suggests that we do not really believe that God is helping us.
When we have problems, we are quick to try to solve them.
If we find that we cannot solve them, we reluctantly wonder if God can help us, but we still are not sure we should ask him.
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