It’s Time For the War to End

James 4:1–6 (ESV)
¹What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?

²You 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.

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

⁴You 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.

⁵Or 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”?

⁶But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

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“…the wars around us often comes from the wars within us.” – Pastor Billy Johnson

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THE CAUSE OF THE CONFLICT – DESIRES AT WAR (4:1-2)

James 4:1–2 (ESV)

¹What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?

²You 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.

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The War Within You Eventually Becomes the War Around You

James 4:2
²You 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.

 

 THE CONSEQUENCE OF THE CONFLICT – Desires out of Control (4:2b, 3-4)    

Wrong Desires Distort My Dependence on God
James 4:2

²You 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.

 

Wrong Desires Distort My Prayers – v. 3
Praying with wrong motives

James 4:3 (ESV)
³You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.

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Wrong Desires Distort My Loyalty to God

James 4:4 (ESV)
⁴You 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.

 

 THE CURE FOR THE CONFLICT – GREATER GRACE (4:5-6)

James 4:5-6
⁵Or 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”?
⁶But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

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God Wants Our Undivided Loyalty

James 4:5
⁵Or 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”?

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God Provides Greater Grace to Overcome Hedonism

James 4:6
⁶But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

 

“God’s grace doesn’t just stop the fight around me; it changes what is fighting within me.” – Pastor Billy Johnson

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Grace Is Received Through Humility

James 4:6
⁶But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”