The Humble Way of Living Faith

All right. Well, you guys ready to get in the Word this morning? All right. If you have your Bibles, turn with me to the book of James. We’ve been in a study going through the book of James, and we have gone verse by verse. And people are like, “Really? How is that even possible?” And yeah, if you have been here every week, we are getting through the book of James verse by verse.

And what I love about this approach, just going through Scripture verse by verse, is it actually forces — well, it makes you talk about things that maybe you don’t always talk about. You guys know what I mean? Sometimes we get emphasis; we get strong in one area. But really, we want to be strong in the Lord and the power of His might. We want to be strong in everything that He is. Amen. And so it’s good to go through Scripture and to talk about these things, because His Word is truth. His Word is eternal. And His Word is relevant to us today. And so we’re going to start in James chapter 4, and we’re going to start at verse 1.

And James has been talking about living faith. Can we say that? Living faith. What does our faith look like? What should it look like? If you are a believer in Christ Jesus, James gives a very practical letter of really what it should look like. How many of you know if you’ve been saved, if you’ve been redeemed, if you have life in Jesus, it should look like something? Amen. And so really there is an obedience and a way that we are to walk this Christian life. And we are coming to these verses where James starts talking about the humble character of this living faith.

And so we’re going to start in James chapter 4, starting at verse 1. Let’s just read the first three verses out loud together. You can follow along on screen if you don’t have your Bibles, but let’s read the first three verses together out loud, and let’s just fill this room with His Word. It says this: “Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.”

Tough Scripture Tuesdays

Now, it’s funny. It’s like, really? That’s the verse we’re starting with? Those three verses are what we’re choosing to read out loud together? These are tough verses. And I was mentioning to a friend, another pastor in the area — he was asking, “What are you guys talking about?” And I was like, “Oh, we’re going through the book of James.” And he goes, “Ooh.” Right? Yeah, you feel it. I like to call them Tough Scripture Tuesdays, right? Sometimes you read these scriptures and it’s like, “Ooh, that’s tough.” It hits.

And we’re reading this portion where James is getting very real. He is bringing it out, and he’s bringing some tough correction to the church. He says, “Where do wars and fights come from among you?” He’s talking to the church. He’s talking to believers. And he’s saying, “Listen, there is dissension. There is disunity within the body.” This is one of the first books of the New Testament that was written. And I think sometimes we look at the book of Acts and we think the early church was perfect. But the early church had its flaws too, just like most churches today.

And there was this flaw. There was this dissension. There was this fighting, this turmoil and strife that was happening between believers. And James is saying, “Where does that come from? Why is there this warring among you?” And he says, “Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members?”

You see, sometimes strife can feel like war. Anybody ever been in a disagreement before? And it’s just exhausting. You know what I mean? It’s emotionally exhausting. You feel it physically. You feel it with every part. It’s almost as though you’re in a battle — not just mentally, not just emotionally, but even physically. And he says, “Where do wars and fights come from among you?” And it says this: “Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members?”

Where strife comes from

And so James is saying, listen, the source of conflict amongst believers really always comes down to the same thing. It’s not just about external things. It’s not just coincidence. There is some sort of root of carnality in us that leads to strife. An unsurrendered or rebellious part of one’s life is what contributes to this strife, to this warring that is among us.

And believers who walk in the Spirit toward one another don’t experience these kinds of wars. But if I’m in a fight, or if I’m in a disagreement with another believer, either one or both of us are not walking according to the Spirit, right? The Spirit is unity, right? And so if we are both walking according to the Spirit, there is unity, there is peace, there is love, all those things. But if there is dissension, if there is disagreement, if there is a rub, then there is something in the flesh that is taking place.

And James is saying it’s not just an external thing. Sometimes we like to put the blame on external things, right? The problem is everything but me. The problem is everything else. It’s the economy. It’s my day at work. It’s my boss. It’s all these things. We make it about everything else. But James is saying, listen, between believers there should be the sweetest fellowship. There should be nothing but love, forgiveness, gentleness, a communion together.

You know, really, when you think about it, your best friends really should be believers, because there is a commonality. There is a like spirit on the inside, right? Scripture talks about being unequally yoked, and so often we use that only in terms of marriage, but really that’s in relationship, right? We all likely have friends who are unbelievers. And how many of you know you should have friends that are unbelievers, that hopefully come to believe? It’s good to be in the world. But really, there is a fellowship that you can have with believers that you cannot have with anyone else. And so it’s really a tragedy when dissension and strife amongst believers rises up, because those are the ones that we should have that unity with, that sweet fellowship with.

And what James is saying is, listen, when there is strife, when there are wars among you, where does that come from? It comes from the carnal flesh on the inside — the lustful desires of whatever on the inside that lead to strife. And so in other words, the strife being caused starts with sinful desire in us.

And then notice in verse 2 the types of desire that lead to conflict. Verse 2 says, “You lust and you do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain.” And so here we see one of the primary causes of strife is covetousness. It is desiring something that maybe somebody else has, that you want for yourself, right? It is a form of lust. It is covetousness. It is jealousy, which leads to anger. And how many of you know anger is murder in the heart? Did you know that Jesus talks about that in the Sermon on the Mount — that when we have anger toward a brother, it is murder in the heart? Those are some strong words.

And so it’s not just talking about physical murder. I would hope everybody here feels pretty good about not murdering people physically, right? But when we get angry in the heart, Jesus is saying, listen, there’s no difference there. That is murder of the heart. You cannot hate your brother and walk in the freedom and forgiveness that’s been made available, right?

And so there is this covetousness that leads to conflict, a desire for more. And we all want more. Whatever that is, maybe it’s different from person to person, but it could be you want more wealth, you want more status, you want more recognition, you want more power. And so you might see someone who has gotten recognition, and there’s something inside of you that’s saying, “Well, I want that. Why don’t I get that?” And now there is this dissension and this strife amongst believers. Are you guys tracking what I’m saying? James is giving a very practical, very root cause of what causes strife between brothers and sisters in Christ.

You do not have because you do not ask

And so it says, “Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? You lust and you do not have. You murder and you covet and cannot obtain. You fight and you war.” Now look how James continues. He says this: “Yet you do not have because you do not ask.” That’s a powerful statement. And James is giving us a reminder of just really how powerful prayer is.

You know, a lot of times we have a need and we come to God and we say, “God, I’m in a pickle. I don’t know what to do. God, would You just help me?” And we don’t actually ask specifically for solutions. In fact, have any of you ever had something come up in life and you’re like, “You know, I should probably pray about that,” and you think you should pray about it, but you never actually pray about it, right? You had the intentions to. You thought about it. Or sometimes we just think about the problem and we assume, “Well, I’m praying about it.” You see, sometimes when we come into problems or we face an issue, either we don’t pray and we just think about praying, or we pray and we never actually even ask of God.

Something that I’ve been talking about amongst our leadership and with some of our pastors is: what are we actually asking of the Lord specifically? Like, specifically — how does the Lord want to move, and how can we partner in prayer with that specifically? How can we begin to call those things that are not as though they were? How can we begin to walk in greater levels of faith and belief in what God has spoken?

And James is saying here, “You do not have.” Why? Because you’re not actually asking. Yeah, you have real problems. Yeah, there are things that you are missing, right? He’s saying you lust, you covet, there are things that you want. And he’s even admitting there are things that you actually don’t have, that you are missing. But you’re going about it the wrong way.

And so often, when there is a lack or a need in our life, we just want to fix it ourselves. We want to make something happen. We want to do it. We want to take control. We want to take life by the reins and make it happen for ourselves however we can make it happen. But we never actually invite God into the process. How many of you know that is the root of sin, right? It is finding solutions outside of God. It is, “What don’t I have? I want that, so I’m going to make it happen for myself.” And we do it outside of God. We do it outside of God’s will. And the very thing that we wanted ends up being bitter in our mouth, right? That’s what sin is.

The blessing of the Lord makes one rich, and with it He adds no sorrow. So when the Lord brings blessing to your life, when the Lord is bringing increase, when we invite the Lord into our needs and we ask of the Lord and He pours out blessing — how many of you know when it’s from the Lord, it is blessed? It is good. Somebody say amen. How many of you say, “I want more of the blessing of the Lord in my life”? Amen.

But when we don’t have, and we make it happen ourselves, it stings. It might satisfy in a moment. It might gratify that initial longing. But you get that honeymoon phase, and then all of a sudden that’s over, and now it’s like, “What? Where’s the Lord?” You know what I mean? And now you’re in the middle of this, and you’re in deeper than you ever thought. You’re like, “How did I even get here? I don’t even want this anymore.” Right?

And this is what James is addressing. What is driving you on the inside? Is it the Spirit of the Lord? Or is there this carnal nature on the inside that is driving you to go about things and to live life in a way that is outside of Him? And James is saying, don’t fall for that trap, because it will never satisfy you. It’ll never satisfy. He says, “You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and you do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.”

You see, this is the futility of living life according to your fleshly desires and pleasure. It will never be enough. There’s something about our nature where we just always want more. “I want more. I want more. I want more freedom. I want more entertainment. I want more time. I want more money. I want more. I want more.” But how many of you know it was never intended for us to just have every whim or desire of our heart satisfied? Did you know that? God’s will for your life is even greater than that. His will for your life is to know Him and to have life more abundantly. Jesus is greater than any other desire we could ever have.

Now, I say that, and we nod to it. We agree. And we’re like, “Yeah, but there are real needs.” There are real needs. So go to the Lord. There are things that you lack. Go to the Lord and trust Him. You see, when we go about it our own way, the very thing that we do to get the thing is the very thing we have to sustain to keep it going. But when God does it — how many of you know God is doing the work? And how many of you know God is faithful to finish the work? Amen. Yes.

So James is trying to bring wisdom. And he’s trying to save believers from a lot of heartache, from a lot of pain, from a lot of disunity. And he’s saying, listen, don’t live for the lustful desires of the flesh. God wants something greater in us, and that is life abundantly through Jesus Christ.

But notice the second part of verse 2. It says, “Yet you do not have because you do not ask.” How many of you are even hearing the Lord right now saying, “You need to ask Me about that”? What is it that you’re facing? What decisions do you have to make? What things are troubling your heart? What desires do you have that are actually even good? They’re good, but don’t go outside of Me. God is saying, “What do you have need of? Ask of Me. Come to Me. Seek Me.” You do not have because you do not ask.

Praying the Father’s heart

Verse 3 says this: “You ask and you do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.” And so we see James is actually raising multiple issues within believers when it comes to prayer. Number one, we do not receive because we don’t ask. But number two, we do not receive because we actually ask amiss. We ask merely for our own pleasure. And so after dealing with the problem of no prayer, James goes on to deal with the problem of selfish prayer.

Now, maybe you don’t know this, and you’re like, “Well, then what do I actually pray? What do I actually ask?” Right? Well, how many of you know Jesus did give us a model of prayer, right? The disciples asked, “How do we pray?” And Jesus said, “Well, when you pray, pray like this.” He said, “Pray in this manner.” Do you guys remember that? Right. Now, here’s the thing — it’s the Lord’s Prayer. Can we pray the Lord’s Prayer? Absolutely. I pray it all the time. But He says, “Pray in this manner.”

And notice the first thing He says. He says, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name.” Notice the first thing that Jesus does is He gives His attention to the Father. When we pray, the very first thing that we can do is to come to the Father in the name of Jesus and say, “Father, You are holy.” There’s something that happens in our hearts when we come in prayer and we begin to recognize who God is. If you can come to the Lord in prayer and begin to recognize who God is — that number one, He’s holy, that He’s worthy, that we need to give Him our praise and our attention and our hearts and our adoration — listen, when you do that first, you will begin to pray prayers that are aligned with His heart. Do you guys get it? Does that make sense? Some of you are getting it.

If I just go to the Lord and I treat God like a genie in a bottle and just say, “God, I need this. I need that. I need this. I need that,” we are trying to align God’s will with our will. But how many of you know prayer is about aligning our will with God’s will? We are actually partnering with God in the Spirit, and we’re saying, “Lord, Your kingdom come. Your will be done.”

Because listen, there are things that need to happen in your life. There are things that you want to have happen in your life, right? You want to find the right person to marry, right? You want to be able to have a home where you can live, right? There are these things that you want. And guess what? There are things that God said, “I want to take care of with you.” But our starting point isn’t “I need, I need, I need, I want, I want.” Our starting point is this: “Father, You are good. Lord, if You never gave me another thing, You’ve given me everything, because I have You. And Lord, let Your will be done in my life.” And as you begin to pray like that, all of a sudden you’re going to begin to pray the heart and the will of the Father.

Now, I’m not going to go all into this, but how many of you know we’ve also been given the Holy Spirit? And the Holy Spirit will teach us the things to pray. In fact, when we pray in our spiritual language and we pray in the Spirit, Scripture says we’re praying the perfect will of God. How powerful is that? When you pray in the Spirit, in your spiritual language, you are praying a perfect prayer. I mean, it kind of makes you want to be like, “Not only do I want to pray in the Spirit, I want to pray in the Spirit even more.”

Paul says it like this: “I pray in the Spirit more than all of you,” right? “I pray in the Spirit all the time.” But he says this: “I don’t just pray in the Spirit. I also pray with my understanding.” Oh man, I’m going all over. When we pray in the Spirit — I will often do this — I’ll be praying in the Spirit, and the Lord will show me things in the Spirit, and I’ll begin to see things, and people will come to mind. And all of a sudden I’ll be praying in the Spirit, and then with my understanding I’ll pray according to the Spirit. I’ll say, “Lord, yes. Would You capture their heart, Lord? Would You protect them? Would You see this?” And I’m praying in my understanding. And then what do I do? I go back to praying in the Spirit. I pray in the Spirit, I pray in the Spirit, and the Lord shows me this, and then I pray these things in my understanding. Do you guys see what I’m saying?

Prayer is not just throwing up a wish list to God and saying, “Lord, I want all these things to happen. Can You make this happen? Lord, can You do this? Can You do that?” And here’s the thing: the Lord wants to do some of those things. But when we make it about the things He can do, we miss Him. And there is no greater gift than Himself. Come on, somebody say amen.

And so James is saying, why are we fighting? Why is there this strife? And it always has this root: there’s something that is missing in me. There is something in me that is not aligned with the heart of God. And rather than seeking God and His will, I just try to make it happen for myself.

Friendship with the world

And then James goes into one of the boldest, strongest sections perhaps in this whole letter. Verse 4 — he says this: “Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, ‘The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously’?”

It starts so tough. And James starts by using terminology very similar to the Old Testament. Every time that the hearts of His people would go astray, and they would begin to worship other gods and they would begin to look for other solutions outside of Him, there was this terminology that God would use about the adultery of the heart. And really, when we put anything or anyone in front of God, that is actual spiritual idolatry.

And James is using these very strong words, and he says, “Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?” In other words, when we love the world and we choose the ways of the world and we adopt the values of the world — the truths, the strategies, the systems of the world — we are actually going into opposition with God Himself. And God would use this language in the Old Testament when people were attracted to idolatry. In other words, spiritual unfaithfulness, which includes ignoring God and opposing His will, is spiritual idolatry. And when we love the world, when we choose the ways of the world, we are actually at odds with God, because God is not of the world. Yeah.

James is saying this covetousness is idolatry, and the friendship of the world is enmity with God. He says, “Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” James is recognizing something that is very important, and it’s really a part of the sanctification process of every believer: that you cannot be true friends of this world, which is in rebellion toward God, and be true friends with God. The world and its systems, its values, its thoughts — all of those things are at odds with God. And when we partner with those things, we are coming against the Lord.

Now, this is difficult, because we live in this world. In fact, Scripture talks about how we should actually be at peace with people, that we should get along with people that are in the world, that we should love our neighbor, right? And there’s this tension. But how many of you know that doesn’t mean that we actually love the world, right? We don’t have to give the world our allegiance. We don’t have to let it sway our hearts or our thinking. As believers, we should only allow the truth, the values, and the principles of the kingdom of God to dominate our hearts and thinking, not the thinking of this world.

Now, some people take this to an extreme. They’re like, “Well, I’m just going to go into the middle of the woods, and I’m just going to avoid the world.” How many of you know that’s not actually what Jesus tells us to do? In fact, that’s the opposite. Jesus said we’re in this world, but we are not of this world.

I remember early on, when our children were very young, we prayed about having our children go to public school, or homeschool, or private school. We asked the Lord, because we didn’t want to assume. I think they’re all thankful now at this point, but we actually felt like they needed to be in the public school system. We didn’t want to keep our kids out of the world. They need to know how to walk with God in the world. Now, don’t get me wrong, there was a lot of prayer behind that. We had to pray over our children. We had to pray the blood over our children. There are battle wounds and scars and difficult conversations that have had to come. There are things that have even been picked up that they are going to have to continue to work out with the Lord. Amen. But Jesus said, “No, you are in this world, but you’re not of this world.”

Meaning what? Yes, you are here. Yes, there are people that don’t believe that you are talking with, that you are fellowshipping with. There are people that you’re speaking into. There are people that are going to speak things that aren’t true. There’s all of this. Don’t adopt the world and be friends with that and choose that. Choose the truth that is eternal. Choose the values and God’s ways, and be obedient to Him.

The Spirit who yearns jealously

And verse 5 says this: “Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, ‘The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously’?” Everybody say “the Spirit.” Oh, I was going to say — it’s all caps, so you couldn’t see — that’s a capital S. When you give your life to Jesus, Scripture says you are born again. You’re a new creation. The old has passed; behold, all things are new. Somebody say amen.

And when you are born again, not only is your spirit that was once dead now alive in Christ Jesus and able to be with Him forever, but He gives His Holy Spirit, and His Holy Spirit fills us and lives in us. Amen. And I love how this says this, because this is where I believe this portion of Scripture shifts. James is saying, “Do you not realize that the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, God Himself, dwells in you and yearns jealously for you?”

You know, this is probably most recognized in the book of First John, where Scripture talks about when we get off — maybe we feel distant from God, or maybe we’ve allowed compromise in our life. There are behaviors, there’s talk, there are things that we’re doing, things that we’re saying that aren’t really honoring to the Lord. Anybody know what I’m talking about? If you’ve been walking with the Lord for some time, all of a sudden you feel like there’s something between you and God. And then there’s something on the inside that is saying, “Come to Me. Come to Me. Come back to Me. Draw near to Me. Choose Me. Will you choose Me again?” How many of you know that is His Spirit on the inside drawing you to the Lord Jesus Himself? Somebody say amen.

No matter how far your heart gets, no matter how much you’ve chosen the world, no matter how much you’ve walked in sin and compromise and covetousness, no matter how much anger — if you are born again and you are a believer in Christ Jesus, there is someone, the Spirit Himself, who dwells on the inside, who is calling you and saying, “Don’t you know I want you more than anything? All I want is to be with you. Come to Me.”

I don’t know about you, but when I read this, oh, I can sense so strongly the Holy Spirit saying, “Come, come. Let there be nothing. Repent of your sin. I’ve taken care of that. All of that was covered by the blood that was shed on the cross. I’ve given you new life. Confess your sin. Repent of your sin. Come back to Me.” Don’t you know the Holy Spirit who lives in you yearns jealously for you? Amen. It’s powerful. It’s powerful.

But He gives more grace

Now, we have to admit the first several verses here are tough. But we get to this refreshing verse here in verse 6. It says this: “But He gives more grace.” Put it on a T-shirt. “But He gives more grace.” You know, James is saying, listen, as much as you mess up, as much as you’ve gone outside of God, as much as you’ve walked in jealousy, covetousness, whatever, as much as you’ve sought things outside of Him — He not only yearns jealously for you, not only does He want more of you, not only does He want to be with you, He gives you the capacity to do it. He gives more grace. That’s who He is.

“But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: ‘God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.’” You see, the same Holy Spirit who dwells in me, who is yearning jealously for me, the same Holy Spirit that calls me, draws me, convicts me — He will also give me the grace to love Him and to serve Him as I should.

Listen, did you know that if you feel like your love for Him is waning — maybe you’ve gotten tired, maybe you’ve been hurt, maybe you’ve been offended, maybe you’ve been walking in sin, whatever it is — you can call on the Lord and say, “Lord, would You give me a heart and a love for You”? How many of you know that’s a prayer He wants to answer? “Lord, would You help me love You more?” He’ll give you the grace to do it. Is this okay? Yeah. “But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: ‘God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.’”

And so we see in these first six verses there’s this beautiful contrast of where we often find ourselves and the heart of God. And the contrast is this: how weak we are, but how strong He is. Yeah. How proud we are, and how humble He is. How erring we are, and how perfect He is. How changing we are, and how unchanging He is. How provoking we are, and how forgiving He is. How in us there is only ill, and how in Him there is only good. And yet even in all of that — our failures, our mishaps, our missteps, our wrong decisions — all of that draws His goodness, and He pours out grace so that we can grow in our love for Him. Amen.

Grace comes to the humble

And we see here what blocks us from receiving grace. How many of you know if you’re not receiving grace, it’s because there’s something preventing you from receiving it? It’s not God. How many of you know God is pouring it out? When we aren’t receiving His grace, there’s something blocking it. And he says this: “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

Listen, if you need grace, grace only comes to the humble. I’m going to say it again: if you need grace in your life, grace only comes to the humble. Are you willing to actually lay down your life? Are you willing to say, “God, I’m not going to do it the way that I want to do it. I’m going to do it Your way”? Are you actually willing to say, “Lord, what I’ve done, some of the things that I’ve said that did not honor You — it was wrong”? That’s actually harder to do than we sometimes like to admit, because we want to be right. We want to be justified.

And let me just tell you guys this, and this is very important for everybody to hear: you can always find somebody to agree with you. It does not make it right. What does God say? And are you willing to choose His way? Are you willing to choose Him? You guys, does that make sense? You can always find someone to agree. It doesn’t matter what it is. The most sick, the most perverse, the most outright darkness — somebody will say, “Yeah, that makes sense. That’s good for you.” And it will lead you astray. Amen.

There is a way we are to live, and it is to live a life that walks in humility before the Lord, that says, “Lord, I’m laying it all down. All of my preferences, all of my desires, all of my dreams, everything I am, Lord, I’m laying it down. Would You help me to grow in my love for You? Would You help me to walk with You the way that I should walk? Lord, would You help me to do it Your way?” Can you see this? This is what the Lord is asking of us. And so if you want to receive the grace of God, what do we do? We humble ourselves. Amen.

Transcribed from the message recording and lightly edited for reading.